A Tribute to Erik Banks '93

Erik Banks ’93 had a gift for identifying glimpses of order in chaotic, anomalous, and even unpredictable phenomena. Observation and intuition played a key role in this process: a talent he began to hone during his years at Bennington. As a philosopher, he espoused a rigorous conviction: “For me,” he claimed in the introduction of his most recent book entitled The Realistic Empiricism of Mach, James, and Russell, “philosophy without science is empty and science without philosophy is blind.”

This modus operandi was not just limited to his scholarly research, which included two major monographs and over a dozen academic articles and book chapters as well as six papers pending posthumous publication. A refined art connoisseur, Erik revered Leonardo for his ability to observe and to ‘make sense’ of inscrutable natural events—such as the motion of winds, the flights of birds, and the flow of water—through his pen and chalk. Like the Florentine master, Erik too attempted to comprehend nature—particularly human anatomy—by sketching its most abnormal manifestations, guided by his eye but also by his intuition. “For all his verisimilitude to nature, I see Leonardo as half imagination and half realism…” he insisted after patiently scrutinizing the over one hundred drawings in the 2003 retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum, an exhibition he visited numerous times.

On a personal level, those who knew Erik will never forget his captivating συμπάθεια. He constantly made himself available to embrace the concerns of others, without condescension. In turn, his insights were never banal or trite, but always sharp and an integral part of the solution. He invited friends and students to think through and around issues, to deconstruct complexities, to elaborate their own solutions, oftentimes suggesting oblique yet compelling trajectories.

Erik was also an irreverent thinker, vehemently voicing dissent against injustice and abuse of power, against materialism and ineptitude. At the same time, his wit transformed this gravitas into sublime satire: once again, snippets of brilliance in a world of chaos. Commenting on the troubling course of current events, he admitted: “At the end, they can take everything away from me, except my centrality as a humanist, as an active intellectual.”

Erik Banks '93 — New Yorker, philosopher, professor, and amico—passed away on 18 August 2017 of a brain aneurysm, an anomalous and unpredictable event.

Submitted by Alessio Assonitis ’93