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Letters
I was heartened to see your magazine's praise
for the late Professor Norman Care, but I believe a more in depth
article on Norm-concentrating on his life, not his death-would be
a good addition. It is an enduring irony that Norm was the very
person who taught many of us, at the ages of 19 and 20, for the
first time about life and death. For years, he offered a colloquium
with Thomas Van Nortwick on the Meaning of Life, and his meditations
on the subject concluded his introductory course, Philosophy and
Values. Guided by the teachings of Albert Camus, William James,
and many others, Norm pointed out to all of us the undeniable sense
in which every writing carried with it an argument about what was
important in life-in essence, why it should be lived. Though he
taught in the philosophy department, Norm was the most committed
of any professor to melding thought with action and theory with
practice; he devoted himself to the indefatigable task of illuminating
the ways in which Immanuel Kant and David Hume were still relevant
to the everyday life of college students in Northeastern Ohio. This
spirit-that everything in life matters so deeply -will be Norm's
abiding legacy, one that pulled students to him as though led by
a magnetic force, that transformed chemists into philosophy majors,
and lent a rare passion and grace to the way that he lived.
Jason Sokol '99
Berkeley, California
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