One of the fascinating aspects of philosophy is finding that a fellow who worked out some really sharp ideas was sometimes a bit of a jerk. Much the way Jefferson’s dumb waiter concealed his reliance on slaves, which might be awkward as he extolled the virtues of abolitionism.

Few people fully walked their talk, which informs the art of philosophy: can we find truth or even meaning in the musings of some dude who failed to put his ideas to practice? It’s a question we learn we have to ask ourselves line by line. Can this apply to me? Is this useful now?

It’s La mort de l’auteur except applied to existentialism and morality. It applies even to politics.

One time a religious apologist suggested to me Albert Camus converted to Catholicism late in life. It was unlikely. He died at 46 in a car crash only a couple of years after receiving the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature. But I could point out it didn’t matter. Camus himself admitted to the terror of facing our own mortality and that the most common response to this is to commit philosophical suicide that is, take a leap of faith that maybe we exist after we die. There is no shame in finding the greatest terror in life too much to bear.

And so it is with Hellen Keller. Whether or not she lives a life of perfect virtue, it is still our obligation to regard what she says independently of who she was, rather how it fits with who we are as the reader. That said, some of the worst people in history still make astute observations sometimes. And the observation is valid (or not) regardless of the messenger.

Hm, this is quite unusual. There was a user who linked a federalist article here that smeared Helen Keller. I posted a comment responding to it, but now both seem to have been removed. I assume the user who posted the article took deleted his comment after viewing mine. But, that seems to have deleted mine as well. Is it true that deleting a comment that has replies also deletes all of the replies to that comment? If so, that is problematic for posterity.

I will put my reply to the user’s comment here again:

https://time.com/5918660/helen-keller-disability-history/

Linking a conservative magazine that focuses on only one aspect of the narrative they want to push and leaves out the greater context is generally not appreciated. Hellen Keller had views that were tainted by the prevailing zeitgeist and was in no way perfect, but overall she was an ally for social justice.

Also from her WIkipedia:

Keller became a world-famous speaker and author. She was an advocate for people with disabilities, amid numerous other causes. She traveled to twenty-five different countries giving motivational speeches about Deaf people’s conditions.[44] She was a suffragist, pacifist, radical socialist, birth control supporter, and opponent of Woodrow Wilson. In 1915, she and George A. Kessler founded the Helen Keller International (HKI) organization. This organization is devoted to research in vision, health, and nutrition. In 1916, she sent money to the NAACP, as she was ashamed of the Southern un-Christian treatment of “colored people”.[10]

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