A Profile

Abstract

No description better grasps the essence of the man who is the focus of this book than the quotation above. KWT had in mind the parable of the Pharisee from Luke 18: 9–14 when he authored this proclamation. In two senses, the sentence describes KWT himself: at one level, he reveals his conviction that, individually and collectively, humanity has the potential to improve on its righteousness. At another level, and due to his keen awareness of this potential, he embodies this quality himself. He was truly a “righteous man” in all settings, both in his personal and his public capacities. As an individual, an educator, a public commentator, and a practitioner, KWT behaved with imagination, realism, and consciousness. He was a voracious reader, a prolific writer, a versatile thinker, a proactive educator, and a giant facilitator of practice. He worked in various capacities including practitioner, educator, teacher, scholar, and theorist, but the one category that embraces all his roles is that he was an advocate of what he himself has called “public philosophy.”

Nothing is clearer than the distinction between those who claim to be and those who are righteous.

—KWT (B1959a: 100)