charles-warman-cincinnati

I was going through old emails and found a few from Charles Warman and decided to do a search for him. Looks like he passed from this earth October of 2015.

I helped Charles make his web site, The Third Organon. He was filled with love, life and we would talk about philosophy.

legacy.com link

 

Here’s some great emails he sent me in 2010:

 

Hi James.

Any child with the name of Emmitt Jameson O’Louglin

will surely triumph in this life.

The photographs are touching. How blessed you are

and how blessed you know yourself to be. I’m led to

believe that God chose you and your wife to be the

special persons that your children need because you

have risen to the challenge (as He knew you would).

In doing so, James, you hearten and inspire lesser

persons to do those lesser tasks He has assigned

them, knowing beforehand, of course that these

lesser challenges may be all they can handle.

I hope you do not think it is presumptuous of me

to say what I believe to be true. We will always

be good friends. At least I hope that you will see

me as a candidate for such a level of friendship.

Time will tell. I believe it will affirm my judgment.

My maternal grandmother came from County Cork,

and lived to be 92.

You will appreciate this about her.

She loved a small bucket of beer of an evening,

but my mother did not want her to do so, for

reasons she never disclosed.

Thus Grandman enlisted me in an ongoing

conspiracy to get beer for her from the bar

next door, without Mom knowing what the

hell was going on. Grandma lived on the

second floor of our home. When she wished

to engage me to get her bucket of beer filled

with suds, she’d summon me in a stage

whisper from the top of the stairs: CHARLES,

COME UPSTAIRS, I WANT TO SEE YOU.

She’d give me a dime, I’d descend the stairs

as quietly as a young chid/older child/

adolescent (this was a conspiracy that lasted

for maybe a decade and a half) could, open

the door to the side yard, and dash to Nieman’s

Cafe  for a fill-up. The bucket filled, I’d ascend

the stairs as silently as I had descended them.

When I reached Grandma with her bucket of

beer, she’d happily pull on a lobe of my ear

and say these inscrutable words: Ah Charles,

you’re a bully boy with a glass eye!

So the ritual went for many years, from about

1932 to 1942.

I neglected to point out why I loved this duty,

When I reached the landing halfway to her

rooms, I volunteered (never was asked) to

be her beer-taster, faithfully quaffing a bit

of beer to make certain it was safe for her

to consume!

Will be in touch, James.

Charlie

//////

Hi James,

Since you minored in philosophy at Miami, and

obviously are endowed with smarts, I hope that

you will share your thinking with me about materials

I send for the website.

I hope, too, that we can exchange views on

philosophers.

To initiate a discussion I’ll share some thoughts

about those philosophers I regard as the best or

the worst. (I recognize it may be some time before

you respond.) This will be my only reference to

philosophers. The next will be yours.

The best: Aristotle, the philosophical realist

extraordinaire. The best thinking that helped

me to prepare to be a teacher came from him.

The worst: (difficult to choose as there are so

many “worthy” candidates) David Hume. That

Hume could be named the greatest canglophone

philosopher merely serves as a datum of the

lowly state left in English philosophy after Hume

reviewed his own work in order to win attention

for it.

(His “proof” that miracles are impossible stands

as an indictment of his thinking. His premise is

his conclusion in slightly different dress. He thus gave

us one of the best-ever examples of circular

reasoning. But what else could we expect from a

celebrity-seeking, not truth-seeking, observer

or humanity and reality, to both of which he was

blinded by his atheism.)

//////

Salud Jaime,

After meeting you and discussing matters of mutual

interest, familial and intellectual, I am led to believe

that there are three children of the ‘loughlin clan

in these precincts who are blessed to have the

father they have.

You are kinder and more charitable than you can

realize. How forbearing you were yesterday to listen

to my interminable blather — and again today —

especially when you have tons of work to do. I hope

that you will forgive me for both intrusions of your time.

How difficult must be your task after your workday

has ended and your true labor of love begins. But

from what I have learned about the senior O-loughlin

he will be more than equal to the challenge — be-

cause he has character.

It troubles me greatly, James, that one of your

children has the disability you described. What

comes to my mind is the belief that God never

assigns challenges greater than our capacity

to handle them.

I hope that the Mind & the Brain may help you

better understand your child’s impairment.

Perhaps you will gain insights that you now

need and that have been beyond your reach

till now.

It was my pleasure to meet you. I look forward

to working with you on The Third Organon.com.

God bless you and yours.

Charles Warman