This rambles.

It started with a hilarious entry by Jeneane Sessom: "If I’m not going to rant here, then where?" Indeed.

But I connected that to my son Jim and I have having a private email exchange dealing with Walter Kaufman. Shouldn’t we be holding that conversation on line?

Jim is reading Critique of Religion and Philosophy, but I’m introducing myself to Kaufman by reading this classic 1959 article from Harper’s Magazine entitled The Faith of a Heretic.

In the article, Kaufman gets at much of the essence of blogging!  He talks about:

• "the ground on which a genuine conversation can take place" ("it need not make a show of erudition, if only it has grown out of a series of open-hearted encounters")
• listening
• subjecting one’s thoughts "to the candid scrutiny of those who differ" and to one’s "own ever-new re-examination"
• "Writing can be a way of rethinking again and again"

And, significantly:

In the process of teaching and writing [and blogging] one must constantly consider the thoughts of men with different ideas. And prolonged and ever-new exposure to a wide variety of outlooks–together with the criticism many professors seek from both their students and their colleagues–is a more profound experience than most people realize.

Profound, indeed.