I don’t believe in astrology now, but I was open-minded about it when I was young, and I think that might have had some influence on me. I’m a Libran: symbol, the scales, signifying balance, supposed to be naturally diplomatic, lovers of harmony, born mediators. I read about that in my early-to-mid teens, and fancied myself as a successful diplomat or mediator, forever pouring oil on troubled waters. And from quite an early age I was inclined towards abstract conceptualization, so these features would be expressed in rather abstract forms: my only two higher grade qualifications were English (arts) and physics (science); my main degree subjects were philosophy (arts/humanities) and psychology (social science). Those of us on the phil & psych combined honours progamme were offered the choice between graduating BA or BSc. I chose BA (because I preferred philosophy to psychology), but compensated a few years later with an MSc in information technology. And my main intellectual work has been to find the optimal balance between subjectivity and objectivity, and promote peace between subjectivists and objectivists. (Most or all Objectivists are objectivist, but relatively few objectivists are Objectivist.)
Born in 1953 in Falkirk, in the central lowlands of Scotland. One younger sister.
Education
Attended Bainsford Primary School then Falkirk High School, leaving in 1970 (after 5th year) with Higher grade certificates in English and Physics.
University of Stirling, 1977–81, BA (Hons) in philosophy and psychology.
Teeside Polytechnic, 1985–6, MSc information technology.
Career
None, if that word is taken to imply progression of some sort.
However, I’ve worked in Falkirk, Inverness, Rochester, Canterbury, Guildford, Stirling (all UK), Norway (very briefly) and the middle of the North Sea (for two or three months in total) as a telephone and computer engineer, bus and taxi driver, construction and factory labourer, refuse operative (bin man), short order cook, waiter, oil platform steward, computer programmer, academic researcher (IT and environmental economics), non-academic research scientist (IT) and postman.
Nowadays I scrape a living repairing computers, self-employed (I’m a great employer but not a very good employee). My website for work is robinfaichney.co.uk.
Personal
I was a keen hill-walker—mostly bagging Munros (Munro@Wikipedia), but very happy to climb the same one twice or more, especially in different seasons. But for nearly three years I’ve been unable to walk much due to a knee injury.
I’m a Buddhist, of the modern Western Buddhism-without-beliefs variety (BWBbook@Amazon). (I’m not a good Buddhist, but I aspire to be one someday—otherwise I wouldn’t be a Buddhist at all.)
My main leisure activity is philosophy. I have tried several websites in several formats to promote my philosophical ideas, but this is the only one active now. I hope eventually to publish a book.
I intend to put a proper CV online at some stage. (Bet you can’t wait!)
