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The document provides biographical details about Robert Solomon, an American philosopher who taught at the University of Texas. It describes Solomon's passion for philosophy and intellectual discussion, his embracing of life's virtues, and his sudden death in 2007 at age 64 while traveling. The document also shares quotes and views from Solomon's writings on topics like existentialism, gratitude, and perspectives on suffering.

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A Passion for Wisdom , by Robert Solomon and his wife Kathleen Higgins, is an excellent short introduction to philosophy. Solomon and Higgins met in Austin, Texas, where both were professors in the philosophy department at UT. It's an abbreviated version of their Short History of Philosophy .
Once a month or so, Solomon and his friend and colleague James Pennebaker would meet for beer and conversation at the Dog & Duck. Most of the time, Pennebaker recalled, they would talk about "the nature of emotions, from both a philosophical and a neuro- scientific perspective." Beer and neuroscience: they could almost be the watchwords of a life that Solomon's friends and colleagues say was marked by a passion for intellectual seriousness and a love of fun. One former student, the filmmaker Richard Linklater, cast him in a cameo role as himself in the 2001 film "Waking Life."
In "Waking Life" Solomon is seen telling a classroom of students about the importance of existentialism in the 21st century. "I am afraid that we are losing the real virtues of living life passionately, the sense of taking responsibility for who you are, the ability to make something for yourself and feeling good about life," he said in the movie. Many of his friends and family say that Solomon himself embodied those virtues.
Solomon's own life ended suddenly in the airport in Zurich, Switzerland on January 2, 2007. According to Higgins, Swiss medical authorities cited the cause of death as pulmonary hypertension. Solomon was 64.
"Having his condition, he was more aware than most people about how fragile and finite life is," Higgins said. "He would like to tell students that if there were some things they wanted to do, to not hesitate to do them." David Sherman, an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Montana and a former student and friend of Solomon, said he was very supportive of his students. "He wanted students to shine and helped to facilitate their own career and shine as brightly as they could," Sherman said. "That is all too rare in academia." === A former student recalls: even though he was a world-renowned expert in his field, year after year you could find him sitting cross-legged on a table discussing with college sophomores what it means to be alive.
This is not an excuse for quietism or resignation. It is no reason to see ourselves simply as passive recipients and not as active participants full of responsibilities. On the contrary... In his book Spirituality for the Skeptic , Solomon urged the cultivation of a feeling of gratitude for life: Gratitude, I want to suggest, is not only the best answer to the tragedies of life. It is the best approach to life itself...
...as Kant and Nietzsche, among many others insisted: ...being born with talents and having opportunities imposes a heavy duty on us, to exercise those talents and make good use of those opportunities. It is also odd and unfortunate that we take the blessings of life for granted -- or insist that we deserve them -- but then take special offense at the bad things in life, as if we could not possibly deserve those. Amor fati , Nietzsche said: affirm it all. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M-cmNdiFuI
Whether or not there is a God or there are gods to be thanked, however, seems not the issue to me. It is the importance and the significance of being thankful, to whomever or whatever, for life itself. -Robert C. Solomon, Spirituality for the Skeptic (2002) The proper recognition of tragedy and the tragic sense of life is not shaking one's fist at the gods or the universe 'in scorn and defiance' but rather, as Kierkegaard writes in a religious context, "going down on one's knees" and giving thanks.
As Solomon said... We have much to be grateful for, if we love our lives. But there is also much in life not to love. Pain and suffering, the tragic and senseless loss of life from natural catastrophe or human perfidy, disease, cruelty, murder, untimely death. Evil is a problem, existentially and philosophically.
Which view of suffering is most constructive and hopeful that we should do all we can to eliminate it, or that we should accept it and affirm the necessity of all that is? Or do you like neither of these statements? How would you put it?
...so mercilessly parodied by Voltaire in Candide -- all for the best in this, the best of possible worlds--and reviled by William James as superficiality incarnate, the blatherings of a wig-pated age no longer credible in our time. Voltaire (1694-1778) Is suffering necessary? One could take refuge in the mysterious and incomprehensible nature of divine mind and argue that, from a Gods-eye perspective, human suffering is necessary to bring about a greater good whose full dimensions we can- not see. This is theodicy, the view associated with the German philosopher Leibniz... G. Leibniz (1646-1716)
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Passion1

  • 1. A Passion for Wisdom , by Robert Solomon and his wife Kathleen Higgins, is an excellent short introduction to philosophy. Solomon and Higgins met in Austin, Texas, where both were professors in the philosophy department at UT. It's an abbreviated version of their Short History of Philosophy .
  • 2. Once a month or so, Solomon and his friend and colleague James Pennebaker would meet for beer and conversation at the Dog & Duck. Most of the time, Pennebaker recalled, they would talk about "the nature of emotions, from both a philosophical and a neuro- scientific perspective." Beer and neuroscience: they could almost be the watchwords of a life that Solomon's friends and colleagues say was marked by a passion for intellectual seriousness and a love of fun. One former student, the filmmaker Richard Linklater, cast him in a cameo role as himself in the 2001 film "Waking Life."
  • 3. In "Waking Life" Solomon is seen telling a classroom of students about the importance of existentialism in the 21st century. "I am afraid that we are losing the real virtues of living life passionately, the sense of taking responsibility for who you are, the ability to make something for yourself and feeling good about life," he said in the movie. Many of his friends and family say that Solomon himself embodied those virtues.
  • 4. Solomon's own life ended suddenly in the airport in Zurich, Switzerland on January 2, 2007. According to Higgins, Swiss medical authorities cited the cause of death as pulmonary hypertension. Solomon was 64.
  • 5. "Having his condition, he was more aware than most people about how fragile and finite life is," Higgins said. "He would like to tell students that if there were some things they wanted to do, to not hesitate to do them." David Sherman, an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Montana and a former student and friend of Solomon, said he was very supportive of his students. "He wanted students to shine and helped to facilitate their own career and shine as brightly as they could," Sherman said. "That is all too rare in academia." === A former student recalls: even though he was a world-renowned expert in his field, year after year you could find him sitting cross-legged on a table discussing with college sophomores what it means to be alive.
  • 6. This is not an excuse for quietism or resignation. It is no reason to see ourselves simply as passive recipients and not as active participants full of responsibilities. On the contrary... In his book Spirituality for the Skeptic , Solomon urged the cultivation of a feeling of gratitude for life: Gratitude, I want to suggest, is not only the best answer to the tragedies of life. It is the best approach to life itself...
  • 7. ...as Kant and Nietzsche, among many others insisted: ...being born with talents and having opportunities imposes a heavy duty on us, to exercise those talents and make good use of those opportunities. It is also odd and unfortunate that we take the blessings of life for granted -- or insist that we deserve them -- but then take special offense at the bad things in life, as if we could not possibly deserve those. Amor fati , Nietzsche said: affirm it all. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M-cmNdiFuI
  • 8. Whether or not there is a God or there are gods to be thanked, however, seems not the issue to me. It is the importance and the significance of being thankful, to whomever or whatever, for life itself. -Robert C. Solomon, Spirituality for the Skeptic (2002) The proper recognition of tragedy and the tragic sense of life is not shaking one's fist at the gods or the universe 'in scorn and defiance' but rather, as Kierkegaard writes in a religious context, "going down on one's knees" and giving thanks.
  • 9. As Solomon said... We have much to be grateful for, if we love our lives. But there is also much in life not to love. Pain and suffering, the tragic and senseless loss of life from natural catastrophe or human perfidy, disease, cruelty, murder, untimely death. Evil is a problem, existentially and philosophically.
  • 10. Which view of suffering is most constructive and hopeful that we should do all we can to eliminate it, or that we should accept it and affirm the necessity of all that is? Or do you like neither of these statements? How would you put it?
  • 11. ...so mercilessly parodied by Voltaire in Candide -- all for the best in this, the best of possible worlds--and reviled by William James as superficiality incarnate, the blatherings of a wig-pated age no longer credible in our time. Voltaire (1694-1778) Is suffering necessary? One could take refuge in the mysterious and incomprehensible nature of divine mind and argue that, from a Gods-eye perspective, human suffering is necessary to bring about a greater good whose full dimensions we can- not see. This is theodicy, the view associated with the German philosopher Leibniz... G. Leibniz (1646-1716)
  • 12. 油