The Weird and Wonderful World of Professor Marcy

About the Book

The narrator, a college senior majoring in philosophy, makes friends with Professor Marcy, a retired philosophy teacher. The student is looking for a book called The End of Time and the professor explains why time is an illusion and that our only experience of reality is in the moment that we call now, which has to be indivisible, for neither the past nor the future exist. The narrator is so intrigued he comes back for more and a series of regular discussions results.

Professor Marcy explains why there are mysteries in philosophy and why philosophers accept them. A prominent example of such a mystery is free will. The student asks whether his mentor believes in God, and the professor explains that faith, not philosophy, is necessary to believe in the God of formal religions, but from philosophy he believes in existence as an infinite, eternal reality that is responsible for and sustains all things. A discussion of the moral implications of that belief leads to an analysis of the nature of individual and social values and the morality of capital punishment, abortion and suicide. Morality brings the two philosophers back to the mystery of free will and its relation to instinct, liberty, human rights and the definition of value.

In discussing whether philosophers should be activists, the professor mentions the conflict between George Santayana and Corliss Lamont. This occasions a criticism of Lamont´s humanism as more a religion than a philosophy. Lamont argued that humanists must believe that science proves that life after death is impossible. The professor challenges anyone to prove that scientifically or philosophically, but holds that no one has proved the opposite either. This leads to an analysis the nature of the self and whether we can prove that we have an identity that persists over the course of our lives. The professor shows how unity is a matter of perception, because our finite mind has to deal with reality by apprehending individual finite systems.

To understand the nature of scientific truths the professor distinguishes between deduction, which provides certainty, and induction, which provides only high probability. A vital result of this distinction is that physics deals with reality in a different way than philosophy. Ignoring the difference between physics and philosophy has led to ridiculous conclusions like multiple universes and time travel. There are three central concepts that human minds have invented to handle the unintelligible gap between the infinite and the finite: eternity, infinity and nothing.

In the course of these conversations, the student narrator meets the young woman he will one day marry. This occasions two very specific discussions on the nature of love and what is required to sustain love throughout a marriage. The story ends with Professor Marcy explaining his view of life and death.

About the Author

Jim Mann, who majored in philosophy over 60 years ago, returns to that first love in the person of Professor Marcy. Jim has been writing articles and books for over 50 years. He served as adjunct professor of marketing and advertising at the University of New Haven and director of the school's new products and concepts laboratory. He has worked as consultant for such firms as ITT, Panasonic, Reader's Digest, American Broadcasting Company, Cablevision, Ladies' Home Journal and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. He was founding editor of Media Management Monographs from 1974 to 1990 and before that editor and president of The Gallagher Report.