The hour today was delightfully unpredictable. I began be rereading from the beginning "Kant and the Platypus". Eco devotes the first chapter to the difficulties that philosophers have had defining the verb "to be". Eco begins with a light, self-deprecating tone. Almost as an aside he mentions, "In debt as I am to Borges for many ideas in the course of my previous activities (p. 6)". I immediately decide that I can afford to have a brief aside while reading Eco to read one of Jorges Luis Borges short stories each day.

I bought the book "Jorges Luis Borges: Collected Fictions" a few months ago, since I have enjoyed a number of his stories over the years while reading various short story anthologies. It is time to begin. The first story, from a collection called A Universal History of Iniquity, is called The Cruel Redeemer Lazarus Morell. Although only a few pages, it is a powerful indictment of deception and moral cruelty during the time of slavery in the United States.

Back to Eco. Eco begins reviewing the problems of clarifying the meaning of "being" by referring to Pascal: "one cannot define a word without beginning with the term 'is', be it expressly stated or merely understood. To define being, therefore, you have to say 'is', thus using the term to be defined in the definition." . Although Eco devotes over 50 pages to this "problem", for me, Pascal's insight is the important one. For unaccountable reasons, Pascal's statement brings to my mind bertrand Russell and his discussion of a logical paradox.

I am not sure of the details, so I quickly get on the Internet and type Bertrand Russell and paradox into a search engine. My first hit is to a web site at McMaster University in Ontario ( http://www.mcmaster.ca/russdocs/russell1.htm ). More fascinating is a description of the origin of these archives. I then spend a bit more time following up some additional Russell and philosophy links. Here is one on atheism that I recall reading over 30 years ago.

Since I am now playing with philosophy, I decide to see what I can find on a Canadian philosopher, Bernard Lonergan, whom a colleague, Lance Grigg is fond of quoting.

Back to Eco. I may want to return to this chapter again, but for the moment I am prepared to move on.