From: Ken Bandy [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Fri 7/4/2008 4:29 AM
To: Sandy Drob
Subject: J N Findlay
It was good to read your tribute to J N Findlay. I was his student at King's College London 1957-60. Had I been at University College under A J Ayer instead I would have missed so much that was disregarded in those days except by JNF.
You describe him very well except that when I knew him he had at least a modicum of grey hair.
He was always very approachable for us students and even took us to lunch at the Strand Palace Hotel in our last term- at his own expense I think.
Your description of him walking around writing on blackboards- sometimes just dashes-evokes fond memories. I remember one occasion when he actually fell of the end of the platform while talking and drawing dashes at the same time.
My fondest memory is when I was in my first year and he asked me out of the blue- "Surely Bandy you don't have an anthropomorphic view of god?" and I guessed that the answer should be "No" although afterwards I wanted to have said "Yes" and I don't suppose he would have minded if I had.
The undergraduates were also invited to his seminars for the postgraduates and at the time we were studying "Intention" by GEM Anscombe. Findlay gave it a very detailed inspection for us.
I remember visiting him at his home in Hampstead after I had graduated to tell him that I had reluctantly decided not to go ahead with my PhD. He greeted me on the doorstep with "Good heavens Bandy, you look like a ghost" such was the straightforward conversation of this very subtle thinker.
Ken Bandy
7/4/2008