Welcome to David Deaven's Homepage

"Plato somewhere compares philosphy to a raft on which a shipwrecked sailor may perhaps reach home. Never was a simile more apt. Every man has his raft, which is generally large enough only for one. It is made up of things snatched from his cabin -- a life preserver or two of psalm, proverb, or fable; some planks held together by the oddest rope-ends of experience; and the whole shaky craft requires constant attention. How absurd, then, is it to think that any formal philosophy is possible -- when the rag of old curtain that serves one man for a waistcoat is the next man's prayer-mat! To try to make a raft for one's neighbor, or try to get on to someone else's raft, these seem to be the besetting sins of philosophy and religion."--John Jay Chapman