Richard Schain

Behold the Philosopher: a Memoir Richard Schain

Behold The Philosopher presents the development of the author as a philosopher, beginning with his childhood in New York City, through his introduction to philosophy at New York University, then his subsequent training as a research neurologist at Yale, and finally culminating in his departure from medical academia and embarkation into the life of an independent philosopher, totally apart from the conventions of academic philosophy. The epochs in one's life, as Henry David Thoreau once wrote, are one's "thoughts"; the author's thoughts form the central focus of his writings, which are reviewed in this philosophical autobiography. There is a clear metaphysical orientation throughout, as opposed to the analytic and scholarly approach of most contemporary university philosophers. An interview with the author published in the literary magazine The Die is reproduced in full. The epilogue entitled "The Last Infirmity of the Noble Mind" summarizes the author's views on philosophy and the philosophic life. The very essence of philosophy is the discovery of the metaphysical mind. When a philosopher abandons this search for a tenuous membership in the institutions of science and takes on the habits accompanying them, he has abandoned his high calling in the cosmos. He has traded in the philosopher's venerable 'himation' for the dubious white coat of science.