A propos yesterday's post, Ned Block posted an amusing recollection at van Fraassen's blog:
I took a course with Putnam as a sophomore at MIT in 1962 and then one or two courses every semester until I graduated in 1964. He was brilliant then in a way that seemed almost other-worldly, a geyser spouting ideas. After 2 years in Oxford I went back to Harvard to work with Putnam but he seemed slightly dimmed, reading his lectures instead of just erupting with them as he had at MIT. He moved from one political nightmare to another, and then got religion. Hartry Field and I had dinner with him once where he seriously advanced the “Where there is smoke there is fire” argument for the existence of his god. Quine’s lectures were horrible. He just read from his Word and Object ms and would only take written questions submitted in advance. I went to see him once about something I was thinking about and he said in effect, “What does this have to do with Quine’s philosophy.” At departmental parties he would go around from grad student to grad student addressing each by name and making a comment that showed he knew something about them. We don’t have to speculate about the existence of Martians–-I have seen one.
Comments are open for more recollections of these "Harvard stars."
