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Personal background
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I was born in Berlin, Germany, about 2,500 years ago, viz., in 1940. Thus I, too, am a Berliner, just like John F. Kennedy (click on his name to see him and hear the famous quote) -- with whom I even share my birthday! From 1943 to 1948 I lived in Austria. My family is from Vienna, but most of its roots go back to what is now the Czech Republic, specifically to Bohemia. The name 'Pluhar,' which originally had a special diacritical mark (an upside-down caret) on the 'r,' means 'plowwright' or 'plowmaker' in Czech. In 1948 we moved to (West) Germany -- as you can on the Web. There, some years later, I saw the light
(actually I didn't, but it's very convenient to "deconstruct" and embellish the personal past!) and emigrated -- and, being clever, simultaneously immigrated -- to the United States of America. That was in 1962, a mere 1,500 years ago. After I had lived in Chicago for one year, the US Army drafted me. Although I was not yet a US citizen, I had come to the United States realizing that I would be subject to the draft; and it appears that the US Army realized this as well. I somehow survived bootcamp in Fort Knox, Kentucky, and was then miraculously sent to fabulous San Francisco and to the Presidio, where from the steps of my barracks I could see San Francisco Bay! During my military service at the Presidio -- which is now a park, because the base shut down after I left! -- I did at some point really see the light, and I decided to take a number of extension courses that prepared me for my eventual transfer to the University of California at Berkeley. What, if anything, woke me up? The increasing weight of what pondering, arguing, and agonizing I had done over the years on issues of deep concern to me as to human beings generally; and, in the end, two books that I bought during a sale in some bookstore on Market Street in San Francisco: Teilhard de Chardin's The Future of Man, and Bertrand Russell's Skeptical Essays. It was the latter work, above all, that made me decide almost immediately that I would study philosophy. I have never regretted my choice. My undergraduate years at Berkeley were an exhilarating experience of awakening, and they prepared me for the gradual refining of my philosophical knowledge and sharpening of my reasoning skills which took place during my graduate studies at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
Thanks for visiting. My feline masters are grateful for your
interest
in their slave. This page, as predicted by Charles Darwin,
continues
to evolve. Thank heavens, eh?
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Email:
WPluhar@psu.edu
