Philosophy

America the Philosophical By Carlin Romano Alfred A. Knopf. 672 pp. $35 By general consent, the great classic of 20th-century American philosophy is John Rawls' Theory of Justice, which appeared in 1971. Bill Clinton once said that when he and Hillary read it in law school, they immediately realized that liberty, equality, and human rights had been established on a "brilliant new foundation of reason. " Around the same time, a pushy Princeton undergraduate with journalistic ambitions asked the mighty philosopher for an interview, only to be turned away with a gentle Harvard smile.

Wilhelm Halbfass, 60, professor of Indian philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and a giant in his field, died of a brain hemorrhage May 25 at Bryn Mawr Hospital. He lived in Narberth. Professor Halbfass taught at Penn for the last 27 years after stints at universities in Canada, India, and his native Germany. He also authored seven books, which are considered major sources and references in Indian and Asian philosophies. He visited India nearly two dozen times, meeting scholars at universities and cultural institutes, his family said.

Centennial's school board is planning to draft a new "Philosophy of Education," and the prospect has some parents worried. About 50 parents attended Tuesday's board meeting to voice their concern that the board's new philosophy would eliminate special academic programs in an effort to educate all children equally. Centennial has been discussing rewriting its philosophy for several years, William Tennent High School Principal Kenneth D. Kastle has said. A final revision could be years away, board members said Tuesday.

Magic - with a bit of philosophy - touches the lives of some children, crops and cows growing on the slopes and valleys in northern Chester County. The magic is different for every advocate of Rudolf Steiner's philosophy of a "spiritual science" that went beyond the boundaries of conventional science. Steiner's philosophy of anthroposophy, from the Greek words for man and wisdom, includes a system of agriculture known as biodynamics, a combination of the Greek words for life and energy.

The Upper Merion Area school board hopes that visitors will characterize its high school students as active learners with intellectual curiosity who are being rigorously challenged in their classes. These were some of the descriptions included in Upper Merion Area High School's recently written philosophy statement that the school board unanimously approved Monday night. The statement and a list of goals for the high school are needed for next year's evaluation by the Middle States Association, a regional group that accredits schools in the mid-Atlantic states.

Remember how revealing it was to hear Richard Nixon's real voice - the tone and . . . uhmmm . . . vocabulary he used when talking informally to his associates? There was a portrait! And it would not have been possible without the advent of audio tape. Listeners can get as vivid - though hardly as lurid - a picture of Alan W. Watts from a new tape, Man, Nature and the Nature of Man (90 minutes, $10.95) from Audio Renaissance. It is a collection of excerpts from the speeches of Watts, one of the foremost Western interpreters of Eastern thought.

Shannon Maloney had already earned a degree in mechanical engineering, but she returned to Lehigh University for a fifth year to complete a second major she knows will make her more employable: Philosophy. Yep, philosophy. Though philosophy is routinely dismissed and disparaged - as useless as English, as dead as Latin, as diminished as library science - more college students are getting degrees in that field than ever before. Though the overall figures remain small, the number of four-year graduates has grown 46 percent in a decade, surpassing the growth rates of much bigger programs such as psychology and history.

The Centennial school board has appointed a committee of administrators, teachers and parents to develop a philosophy of education for the district. At Tuesday night's meeting, outgoing board president Joan Jankowsky announced the formation of the committee that has been charged with "developing a philosophy of education which is consistent with the board's mission statement. " Jankowsky said the committee has been asked to submit its proposal to the board by June 30. The committee has10 members, including three administrators, two teachers, two parents and three board members.

As he leans over his lunch at Bleu, the fashionable restaurant on Rittenhouse Square, 31-year-old English author Alain de Botton begs to differ. His successful new nonfiction book, The Consolations of Philosophy (Vintage, $13), is not what it seems. "It's a slight bugbear to be described as someone who's written a book popularizing philosophy," the tall, slim and still single man of letters says good-naturedly. "In my grander moments, I think I've tried to be more ambitious than that.

Matthew Lipman looks as if he would be most at home with a volume of Aristotle or Kant on his lap. Indeed, Lipman, a philosophy professor who has the demeanor of a longtime scholar, has studied some of the world's most abstruse texts at Columbia University, Stanford University and the Sorbonne. Judging from his book-lined office in Montclair, N.J., it appears that he spends his time immersed in metaphysics. It bears little evidence of his other major preoccupation: children. "Kids aren't supposed to have ideas," Lipman, 64, said recently, sitting in the small building at Montclair State College that houses his most widely recognized achievement: the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children.

America the Philosophical By Carlin Romano Alfred A. Knopf. 672 pp. $35 By general consent, the great classic of 20th-century American philosophy is John Rawls' Theory of Justice, which appeared in 1971. Bill Clinton once said that when he and Hillary read it in law school, they immediately realized that liberty, equality, and human rights had been established on a "brilliant new foundation of reason. " Around the same time, a pushy Princeton undergraduate with journalistic ambitions asked the mighty philosopher for an interview, only to be turned away with a gentle Harvard smile.

WHAT IS IT about the sports teams in this town that the only one interested in creating a defense-first identity is its pro basketball team? Yes, its pro basketball team. The football team thinks it will win a championship by outscoring you. You can argue the Phillies are defense-first these days, but that's more out of default than design. When they acquired those ace pitchers, it was to complement a high-octane offense, not replace it. The hockey team? I don't know if it has an identity.

URBANDALE, Iowa - Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain sought to sharpen his grasp on national security and foreign policy while campaigning in Iowa Tuesday, a day after botching his answer to a question about his support for the U.S. role in Libya. On his first trip to Iowa since decade-old sexual harassment allegations surfaced, Cain indirectly addressed the foreign policy problem by telling more than 200 people at a northeastern Iowa restaurant that the U.S. needed to leave no doubt about its allies and enemies.

There were 25,000 copies initially printed, but Marc Vetri's new cookbook, Rustic Italian Food , went into its second printing before the Nov. 1 release date. Compare that to Il Viaggio Di Vetri , his first book, which sold 25,000 copies after three years. "I just got a $420 royalty check. . . . my first one, three years later," says the chef, sitting on a broken-in brown leather sofa in his newly renovated home kitchen. After two years of recipe testing, writing, and waiting, Vetri is ready to show the world his latest collection.

For financial adviser Pete K. Hoover, Aug. 9 was supposed to be a day off. He planned to spend it on the golf course with son Chris, who was turning 21. Those plans changed Aug. 8, when the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 634.76 points. Surely the day after such a sickening plummet would be dominated by phones ringing "off the hook" at Hoover Financial Advisors, the Malvern firm's sole owner figured. So instead of heading to a tee time, Hoover went to the office - where he "didn't have one phone call . . . not one" from a panicked client.

Shannon Maloney had already earned a degree in mechanical engineering, but she returned to Lehigh University for a fifth year to complete a second major she knows will make her more employable: Philosophy. Yep, philosophy. Though philosophy is routinely dismissed and disparaged - as useless as English, as dead as Latin, as diminished as library science - more college students are getting degrees in that field than ever before. Though the overall figures remain small, the number of four-year graduates has grown 46 percent in a decade, surpassing the growth rates of much bigger programs such as psychology and history.

Athlete             School          Class          Major Angela Acuna       St. Joseph's       Sr. International bus. Danielle Brady       St. Joseph's       Sr. Elementary/sp. ed. Caitlin Connors    Philadelphia U.    Sr. Textile design Liz Donald          Penn                Sr.     Communication Kara Jackson       Temple             Jr.           Kinesiology Alex Karls          St.

What is the SRC thinking? For the most part, the current Philadelphia School Reform Commission plays its cards close to the vest. Other than occasionally offering comments when voting on a resolution or listening to a staff presentation at an SRC meeting, Chairman Robert L. Archie Jr. and Commissioners Johnny Irizarry, Joseph Dworetzky, and Denise McGregor Armbrister rarely speak out. But at a special meeting last week, parent Christine Carlson had...

BALTIMORE - John Chaney remembers the phone call as if it were yesterday. It was a very young Congie DeVito calling to tell him about some basketball statistics he had worked up. "This kid was as smart as they come," the old Temple coach remembered. "He read somewhere that my philosophy was just don't commit any turnovers. " So they talked for hours about that philosophy, and through the years, the philosophy of life. "I first met him at one of our games," Chaney said. They became great friends.

The Rev. John M. Driscoll, 87, president of Villanova University from 1975 to 1988, who added dormitories and other buildings as part of a campus expansion, died Thursday, March 3, at the campus monastery. Villanova University, 1842- 1992, by David R. Contosta, found that through the school's 31 presidencies to that time, three of the men had been "outstanding," and Father Driscoll was one, according to a 1995 Inquirer review of the book. In a statement on the university website, the Rev. Peter Donohue, the current president, noted that Father Driscoll's tenure had included the completion of the Connelly Center - a gathering place for students that includes a dining space, a movie theater, and an art gallery - and the Pavilion, the basketball arena.