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IN MEMORY OF VIRTUE

IN MEMORY OF VIRTUE Page 29 Colin Patrick Day was a professional philosopher (ex–Shrewsbury School; ex–Magdalen College, Oxford). I used to meet him in the George and Dragon or the Jolly Potter to talk about Wittgenstein, whom he did not care for; Iris Murdoch, whose philosophy was too literary for his taste; Richard Cobb, with whom he was at school; and J. L. Austin, whom he revered. One of the topics Patrick wrote about in his declining years was hope. Hope is to be discerned in my mother’s terse comments in her diary, even if it is a peculiar form of that necessary virtue, for the concept of hope, philosophical or otherwise, is broad enough to include my mother’s stout resistance to despondency, her firm resolution not to be defeated, and her refusal to give way to self-pity. I wonder if that degree of hopefulness in the face of helplessness does not also allow us to use the word dignity. I am, however, not keen on the idea of dignity. Usually those who are said to have it do not know the meaning of the word and have no inkling of the idea. I think my mother had it, although she was http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Common Knowledge Duke University Press

IN MEMORY OF VIRTUE

Richmond, Colin
Common Knowledge , Volume 9 (1) – Jan 1, 2003
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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 2003 by Duke University Press
ISSN
0961-754X
eISSN
1538-4578
DOI
10.1215/0961754X-9-1-29
Publisher site
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Abstract

Page 29 Colin Patrick Day was a professional philosopher (ex–Shrewsbury School; ex–Magdalen College, Oxford). I used to meet him in the George and Dragon or the Jolly Potter to talk about Wittgenstein, whom he did not care for; Iris Murdoch, whose philosophy was too literary for his taste; Richard Cobb, with whom he was at school; and J. L. Austin, whom he revered. One of the topics Patrick wrote about in his declining years was hope. Hope is to be discerned in my mother’s terse comments in her diary, even if it is a peculiar form of that necessary virtue, for the concept of hope, philosophical or otherwise, is broad enough to include my mother’s stout resistance to despondency, her firm resolution not to be defeated, and her refusal to give way to self-pity. I wonder if that degree of hopefulness in the face of helplessness does not also allow us to use the word dignity. I am, however, not keen on the idea of dignity. Usually those who are said to have it do not know the meaning of the word and have no inkling of the idea. I think my mother had it, although she was

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Common Knowledge – Duke University Press

Published: Jan 1, 2003

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