Page 12 - November 2020

12
Litterateur
November 2020

Doue'e

Since childhood I was always interested in politics and issues of power,
and thus I was in a privileged position to participate in movement in
solidarity with all these struggles and appreciate the need to join theory
with practice. In the mid to late 1970’s, as an undergraduate, I took
classes in economics, sociology, at 19 studied Kuhn’s “The structure of
scientific revolutions” in seminars held at Strawberry Creek College, an
interdisciplinary, experimental program within UC Berkeley that I was
enrolled in. My opportunities included being able to attend seminars

that addressed the question of what computers can’t do taught by a
philosopher and electronic engineer brother team (the Dreyfus
brothers), study Mao’s China, Brecht’s plays and poetry, explore the
young Marx of the 1844 manuscripts through the teachings of a young
Eritrean visiting professor who taught in the philosophy department. My
scientist/ecologist brother-in-law challenged my thinking to consider
more interdisciplinary and holistic views of science and, together with

my sister, introduced me (with a certain reluctance on my part) to the
world of hiking and camping in the Sierras. All these factors combined to
form a set of experiences quite unlike the typical ones you get in other
US or Italian universities.