I just read a rather silly review of my book Inborn Knowledge by Peter Carruthers. Was he even trying to get the point? I make it a policy not to reply to reviews, especially silly ones, but there is a point I would like to correct because it concerns a friend of mine: Jerry Fodor. Carruthers bizarrely interprets my observation that major twentieth century philosophers have not been much concerned with questions of innateness as some sort of tacit suggestion that Fodor is not a major philosopher. I certainly think he is, and he has written on innateness; but that does not contradict the fact that Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Moore, Carnap, Kripke, Quine, Davidson, et al had little or nothing to say on the subject compared to earlier philosophers. The rest of the review is at the same level, I’m afraid.

Tom was a feral cat that lived on my property. I fed him every day for two and a half years, two or three times a day. He was half blind and quite lame; he often had wounds on his head. I used to pat him occasionally, but then one day he bit me, so I stopped. I had no intimate relationship with Tom, such as I have with my own cats, and in truth he was not easy to like. Also, he would sometimes get into the house to eat my cats’ food, urinating as he went; I had to chase him out with a broom. In addition, leaving food outside for him was a problem because it attracted possums and raccoons. No doubt, Tom was a very mixed blessing.

The other day I found his body lying in the carport. Evidently he had died of natural causes, and was lying in a pool of urine. I buried him in the garden in which he had long lived. I wondered if I had done everything I could to make his life as good as it could be, and had my doubts. Thus he bit me morally even in death. This made me think that there is an aspect of moral obligation that goes unremarked: that it is biting.

I just want to note the death of Prince. I found him quite possibly the most brilliant pop artist of the last thirty years–as a songwriter, performer, and guitarist. “Kiss” is one of the greatest pop songs of all time. I also liked his look and height. I have nothing original to say about him, but just wanted to express my appreciation.

It ended and we must go back to reality. What the show was really about, though I have never seen it mentioned, is virtue. It was about good and bad people doing good and bad things. It was about personal vice–greed, lies, envy, malice–and dealing with it. And it took a very literal and direct attitude towards virtue and vice: they are real and they are what matter. This is why I liked it so much (that and the costumes). The story of Mr Barrow struck me as the moral core of the series–and I was overjoyed when “his Lordship” offered him the job of Butler.