Plato believed in an essential mind-body connection, and argued that a combination of intellectual labor and physical exercise would result in their harmonious perfection. The Greek ancient might have taken a shine to Jack Bowen, a nationally known water polo coach whose new novel tries to make philosophy more accessible.
Bowen didn’t know much about the mind-body duality as an undergrad. The two-time All-American was too busy helping the men’s water polo team win two national championships. But late in his senior year, the human biology major “literally stumbled” upon the subject of philosophy while shopping for his course textbooks. As Bowen passed between the physics and psychology sections, a paperback caught his eye. “It had a nice cover,” he remembers, “sky-blue and white.” He sat down with Personal Identity, written by John Perry, the Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor of Philosophy, and got hooked on Plato, Aristotle, Spinoza, Nietzsche and Kierkegaard even before he left the store.
After graduation, he moved to Long Beach, Calif., to train with the national team and earned a master’s in philosophy at CSU-Long Beach. Since 2000, Bowen has divided his time between directing the aquatics program at the Menlo School in Menlo Park, coaching its boys’ water polo team, and teaching philosophy at DeAnza College. “Plato would have been proud,” he jokes.
Given his penchant for student-teacher dialogues, the metaphysician might have been especially pleased by Bowen’s literary debut. The Dream Weaver: One Boy’s Journey Through the Landscape of Reality (Pearson Longman, 2006) is the story of a 14-year-old named Ian and his mentor, the venerable “Old Man.” The two debate and ponder matters of truth and falsehood, justice and morality, and identity and knowledge.
Rob Reich, MA ’98, PhD ’98, an assistant professor of political science, called The Dream Weaver clever and sassy in a blurb on the book’s cover. Fiction often is used to work through a specific philosophical issue, he says, “but to write a general introduction to philosophy through fiction is very difficult, for you need not only good story-telling skills but sharp philosophical skills as well.”
A knack for songwriting couldn’t hurt either: The Dream Weaver has its own theme song, an indie rock anthem Bowen co-wrote with his brother Matt. An avid drummer, Bowen thinks music is yet another way to bring metaphysics to the masses. “Ultimately, philosophy is not about stodgy old professors sitting in an ivory tower,” he says. “It’s really about shedding light on the world around you, and on the world inside of you.”
—VIDA MIA GARCÍA, MA ’02
