Ian Kenway @iankenway@social.cleverlibre.org

@gemlog

Yes I do - but thanks for reminding me!

@gemlog

Thanks for your kind reply.

In my list of philosophers, how could I miss out Wittgenstein! Of course, of course!

Marford - so North Wales rather than Mid Wales. But on the Welsh-English border - rather like when I lived in Presteigne, Radnorshire before moving to the Beacons.

@gemlog

Hi Gemlog (if I may!)
I’m sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I fear that Symi has suffered from quite a bit of rain in the past five and springtime has been put on hold. Weatherwise, this is a very intemperate island! Within a month o coming here in October 2017, Symi experienced an extreme weather event and was declared a disaster area by the national government in Athens. Last year we experienced the hottest ever and this winter has been the wettest for twenty years according to local Symiots.

Last March I launched my personal website www.phidoc.net. This is the best place to find out more about me. I also have a professional website www.ciepp.net which is in need of a revamp. The former has a Contact page. My CV can be found at https://www.ciepp.net/imk_cv_online.html

Currently I have an Honorary Research Doctorate at Cardiff University (2004-) but I do not intend to renew it in July. However, I shall continue my work as the Director of CIEPP here on Symi. I have been interested in philosophy since 1970. My doctorate required me to study Descartes, Popper, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau Ponty, Gadamer and Polanyi in some depth. As an undergraduate, I engaged with Plato, Descartes, Locke, Berkeley and Hume as well as Quine. As well as ontology and epistemology, I also have an interest in aesthetics.

My late wife, Audrey, and I first visited Symi in 1983 and returned in 1987. In earlier years, we enjoyed holidays in Paros and Poros. When she died in March 2017, I decided that would like to return to the island even though I had spent ten happy years living on a farm in the Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales.

Audrey was born in Guyana. Her mother and many members of her large family emigrated to Canada in the 1960s. Her late brother Winslow taught physics at Cambrian College, Sudbury and was a member of the Canadian Science Council (I’m not sure the body still exists). Her late brother Fred became Head of the French Department at the University of Toronto and later Principal of New College, UoT. Her brother Pat is currently Assistant Deputy Minister in the Ontario Ministry of Education and is a Law Professor at Guelph. Her brother Neville lives in Edmonton, Alberta and runs a private social work practice with his wife and their daughter is currently completing a PhD in Psychiatry at McGill University in Montreal. So I guess I have a slight Canadian connection!

That’s enough about me. It would be great to know more about you. I guess you have a name! And you are British but with some German connection (?) Here on Symi we have not only have visitors from all parts of the world abut about 150 expats (French, German, Danish, UK, American and Russian) who either live here continuously for long stretches of the year.

I live quite high up from the port and there’s a small group of (for want of a better word) ‘creatives’. My nearest neighbour is a Scottish rock guitarist, next is a novelist from Cape Cod and further along an artist/art historian whose partner is an accomplished language teacher. (Earlier in my life I studied New Testament Greek but conversational Greek is another matter and I’m still on the nursery slopes.)

I’ll leave it there. I don’t have a lot of spare time (I’m on the Symi International Film Festival's Judging Panel) but I’m happy to engage with you on Mastodon from time to time or through an occasional email.

Best

Ian