There have been several times this semester when I have had reason to mention this "Dreben" character, usually when we (in the 20th Century class) were reading some passage or other by Quine.

I had the chance to take a seminar on Wittgenstein with Dreben when I was at BU, though I've seen large lecture sections with fewer people in regular attendance.

My one memorable exchange with Dreben occurred when I asked him about how he would interpret my actions if I were to come into class with a duck strapped to my head. He had been trying to make a point about the difficulty assigning adjectives such as insane or irrational. The duck comments managed to bring him up short for the moment since at that moment as it did seem to be an unambiguously irrational activity.

In any case, there's an interesting discussion of Dreben's influence on
Leiter Reports  ¶ #

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