Photos
Some External Links:
The Hunger Site
The American Philosophical
Association
Center for Inquiry
The Jefferson Center
The American Humanist
Association
The Society of Christian Philosophers
Erik Wielenberg, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Phone: (765) 658-6275
E-mail: ewielenberg at depauw dot edu
"My person was hideous, and my stature gigantic: what did this mean? Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination?" - Frankenstein's monster
". . .a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher or, as his wife would
have it, an idiot." - from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, by Douglas Adams
"Question with boldness even the existence of God; because if there be one,
he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear." - Thomas Jefferson
"[T]he origin of the American Republic is distinguished by peculiar
circumstances. ... In the formation of our constitution, the wisdom of all ages
is collected -- the legislators of antiquity are consulted -- as well as the
opinions and interests of the millions who are concerned. In short, it is an
empire of reason." - Noah Webster, 1787
"[A]ll the teaching must still be done by concrete human individuals. The State
has to use the men who exist. Nay, as long as we remain a democracy, it is men
who give the State its powers. And over these men, until all freedom is
extinguished, the free winds of opinion blow." - C.S. Lewis
"Both keeping past teachings alive and understanding the present -- someone able
to do this is worthy of being a teacher."
- Kongzi (a.k.a. "Confucius")
A Bit About Me
I did my graduate work at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst
and was fortunate enough to spend a year studying at the Center for
Philosophy of Religion at the University
of Notre Dame. My dissertation was directed by Fred Feldman.
My research is focused in ethical theory, particularly character-related issues,
and contemporary analytic philosophy of religion.
A Bit About the Fate of Jeremy Bentham (life: 1748-1832;
stuffed corpse on display: 1832-present)
According to several eminent scholars, including Neil Young, Def Leppard, and
the Kurgan from the film The Highlander, "it's better to burn out than to fade away."
Perhaps, but it's better still to have your organs removed, be stuffed with
straw, have your real head replaced with a wax one, and be displayed in
what appears to be a closet with your name engraved at the top.
Bentham's dream is also my dream; anyone who is interested in contributing to
the Erik Wielenberg Preservation Project should contact me via email.
Bentham, Melville, and Garneray
"Though Jeremy Bentham's skeleton, which hangs for candelabra in the library of
one of his executors, correctly conveys the idea of a burly-browed utilitarian
old gentleman, with all Jeremy's other leading personal characteristics; yet
nothing of this kind could be inferred from any Leviathan's articulated bones."
- Herman Melville in Moby Dick
Behold! -- perhaps the greatest literary description of awakening with a
debilitating hangover:
"Dixon was alive again. Consciousness was upon him before he could get out
of the way; not for him the slow, gracious wandering from the halls of sleep,
but a summary, forcible ejection. He lay sprawled, too wicked to move, spewed up
like a broken spider-crab on the tarry shingle of the morning. The light did him
harm, but not as much as looking at things did; he resolved, having done it
once, never to move his eyeballs again. A dusty thudding in his head made the
scene before him beat like a pulse. His mouth had been used as a latrine by some
small creature of the night, and then as its mausoleum. During the night, too,
he'd somehow been on a cross-country run and then been expertly beaten up by
secret police. He felt bad." - Kingsley Amis in Lucky Jim
