Josiah Carberry Day

I first encountered Josiah S. Carberry, Professor of Psychoceramics at Brown University, in Joel Feinberg’s Harmless Wrongdoing, the fourth volume of his epic tetralogy, The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law. Its acknowledgements end with this tidbit:

Finally, I must mention Professor Josiah Carberry, word of whose death has just reached me. De mortuis nil nisi bonum. On his behalf it must be said, in all fairness, that his actions were rarely as bad as his intentions.

Intrigued, I looked back at the front matter of earlier installments. In Volume 3, Harm to Self:

On this particular volume I received no help from Josiah S. Carberry. For that too I am grateful.

Nothing in Volume 2; then, from the Preface to Volume 1, Harm to Others:

Philosophical helpers have been too abundant to acknowledge individually in this limited space. I hope I have remembered them all in the notes. In any event, they know who they are, and I want them all to know that I am immensely grateful for their help. My forme…