Eloquent Silences: After Eliot

It was shortly after I arrived in Hawai'i as a graduate student that I met Eliot Deutsch at his lovely home. The warmth of his welcome and his hospitality was genuine. His joie de vivre, untouched by cynicism, was something I had not seen too often among the professorial class. In my case, Eliot took on the unenviable task of mentoring a somewhat confused and somewhat cocky graduate student. As I got to know him better, I realized that Eliot's mentorship was not mere lip service to the dharma of a teacher. It was an active solicitude, that pushed and challenged students on philosophical matters and offered sage words of advice on mundane problems. From helping resolve institutional problems to making phone calls to his acquaintances to secure an affordable apartment for me, Eliot gave unselfishly of his time, not just to me but to many others who sought his help. This paternal attitude was thankfully coupled with a low tolerance for self-indulgence and other common pitfalls of the Philosophy graduate student.

In trying times, as Chair and guiding spirit of the Philosophy program at UH Manoa, Eliot proved time and again to be a sympathetic interlocutor and astute mentor. As an example, I recall the confusion and frustration among students and faculty that followed in the week that the United States invaded Iraq in 2003. Eliot organized a meeting for faculty and students to have a public conversation about that war. In that meeting folks vented, vituperated, and found a brief release from the impotence of lonely moral anguish.

Eliot was a maven of Comparative Philosophy who sought to imbue his students with a sensibility for philosophical thinking, that was not burdened with artificial boundaries of time and space or the sterile dogmas of academia. In short, a truly Global thought. Eliot taught me the importance of avoiding what he called "the loud moaning about finitude" and focusing on self-creation and the development of creative powers as a primary philosophical task. In a field saturated with technical pretensions and that has all but severed its ties to the original motivations of philosophy, Eliot showed us that it is still possible to pursue Philosophy in its original sense as a seeking after Wisdom.

Eliot wrote that "With death the person game is over. Only various silences remain." In Eliot's case, these silences are voluble, reminding us time and again of the risks of self-deception and the necessity of nurturing our creative power.