Philosopher-turned-detective Josiah Thompson tells how his curiosity about the danger and riddle-solving that surrounds detective work led to a career as a private eye in San Francisco and includes details of detective work and philosophical musing on his

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Why would a philosophy professor at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, married with two dependent children, give up a tenured post paying an estimated $75 an hour to become a San Francisco private eyeapprentice op, in the lingoat $10 an hour? Perhaps for the "voyeur's rush" he feels on surveillance jobs? Readers, for their part, will experience little of that high as Thompson relates the "hugger-mugger stuff" (his wife's phrase) of his work during 1978-88: a palimony suit involving a gay podiatrist, murder in Chinatown, domestic-estrangement capers, a trip to India on a child-custody case. With nods to Kierkegaard's "despair of finitude" and to the "detectivery and shadowy" ideal of "St. Dashiell" (Hammett), he shows us a philosopher "dicking around as a detective" and becoming so pleased with himself that he makes his new career permanent. Readers can only wonder at his misreading of Soren and Dash.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

While on a sabbatical, Thompson, Haverford College professor of philosophy, took a job as a private investigator in the San Francisco area. In this book, he narrates his experiences on several cases, during which he confronted himself and his concept of morality. He tells of auto repossession, murder, child snatching in India, and recovering $30,000 for an accused drug smuggler. Occasionally philosophical, at times introspective, Thompson uses Dashiell Hammett's fictional Sam Spade as his measure. Lack of continuity and suspense tarnish what could have been a fascinating firsthand account. Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights-University Heights P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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