AboutCharles K. MacKay Expertise I can answer a number of questions in philosophy; my academic concentrations (graduate school at Cornell) are ethics, political philosophy, and 19th-century German philosophy (Marx, Hegel, and hangers-on.)
Experience EDUCATION:
BA, New College, 1971, Philosophy and Religion
Awarded four graduate fellowships upon graduation
MA, Cornell University, 1974
Social and Political Philosophy, Danforth Fellowship
All course work and dissertation drafts completed for Ph.D. Cornell University, 1971-1975, Social and Political Philosophy, Danforth Fellowship
Courses in statistics and microeconomics, George Washington University and The American University, 1976-1978
EXPERIENCE:
Health Insurance Specialist 2005 - Present
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service
US Department of Health and Human Services
Allentown Business School Instructor (Computer Science) 2003 - 2005
Northampton Community College
Adjunct Professor of Philosophy 2003 -2005
Lehigh County Community College
Adjunct Professor of Philosophy and Computer Science
PUBLICATIONS:
Medicare Made Easy (with Charles B. Inlander) Addison-Wesley, 1989
Good Operations, Bad Operations (with Charles B. Inlander) Viking Press, 1993
Health Rebooted: Information Changes Everything (in press), 2008
Question Hello. I have been reading the book called "Why I am So Wise" by Friedrich Nietzsche. I am currently reading through the section entitled "Why I am so clever". He is speaking about how nutriment, climate and place can affect a person and how the grow into either a thinking, intelligent person, or another mindless person. While reading this, I can't help but wonder what he is really talking about. Is he really talking about what foods someone eats and where one lives, or are these just metaphors for something else? I have a feeling that they are in fact metaphorical, but I am not sure. I can't seem to be able to read on with this question unanswered. Thank you for your time,
Joey.
Answer Nietzsche always has an ironic, sarcastic side to his writing, even when he is at his most serious.
The passages you quote from from Ecce Homo, his last book. It was written just before he went mad from syphilis, which appears to have been contracted during his one and only one sexual encounter.
In the context of this book, though, he IS saying that one's total experience -- including breakfast, lunch, and dinner, shapes what one is -- but not deterministically; we always have to choose because we always have a choice.
