The British papers this week have been contemplating the death of Joan Hunter Dunn - who was the muse who inspired that most English of poets, John Betjeman.

But never mind Betjeman. I have just come across something that struck me as quintessentially English, on the website of the Cambridge University Philosophy department. It is the biography of one of the members of the faculty, John Marenbon. The full version is here. But let me just highlight the first paragraph and a half:

“John Marenbon is a Fellow of Trinity College, and Lecturer there in the History of Philosophy. He studied at Trinity where, as an undergraduate, he took an unusual course, centred around his interests in medieval literature and thought. He went on to do a PhD (1979) under Peter Dronke on logic, philosophy and theology in the eighth and ninth centuries. He became a research fellow at Trinity in 1978 and was given a job there in 1979 as Lecturer and Director of Studies in (rather inappropriately) English. He held this position until 1997 (except for the years 1991-93, when he was a British Academy Research Reader), when Trinity re-described his post in a way more appropriate to his research and teaching.

His research and academic writing is concerned with medieval philosophy. He began by working on the ninth-century philosopher, John Scottus Eriugena. Unlike most of those who have studied Eriugena, he became interested mainly, not in the writer’s Neoplatonic metaphysics, but in his use of Aristotelian logic [see (publications) 1]. …”

The first bit that made me laugh was the phrase “rather inappropriately”. I don’t think many American academics would admit that they were - in fact - probably unqualified for a job that they held for almost 20 years.

I also like - “Unlike most of those who have studied Eriugena”. Yes, that vast band of Eriugena scholars…how could they have escaped my notice until now.

April 18th, 2008 in Culture | Permalink