Excellent piece Mr. Kimball. I am reminded of Seth Benardete’s anecdote about Rorty:

“I knew Rorty. He was in the philosophy department.He must have entered the same year that Bloom had, at sixteen, I think. He seemed to have an extraordinary case of Weltschmerz, from a early age. But it wasn’t clear there was any basis for it. It looks consistent with his later thinking. When he came to philosophy, it provided the proof of his despair. He now had an argument for his psychological state, which he then expresses in the book. It’s an amazing match.”