Although not a critique in the strictly analytical sense, this 1989-91 title is nonetheless sufficiently methodical and wide-ranging in its comprehensive treatment of a variety of interrelated subjects as to warrant serious consideration as a vehicle for the advancement, on a Social Transcendentalist basis, of post-dialectical idealism (truth) in a world too long torn between the conflicting claims of realism and materialism. Of especial significance here are the T-like diagrammatic structures which enabled John O'Loughlin to flesh-out, in fairly comprehensive vein, the various components of any given subject and to analyse it in relation to the overriding idealistic bias of his philosophy. Subjects tackled include, curiously enough, a theory of the connections between a given mode of attire and the most appropriate approach to sexual intercourse in relation to it, as well as an investigation, more seriously, of the relationships between 'natural' and 'artificial' products or technologies at both 'head' and 'bodily' levels. - A Centretruths Editorial
John James O'Loughlin was born in Galway City, County Galway, the Republic of Ireland, of Irish- and British-born parents in 1952. Following a parental split while still a child, he was brought to England by his mother and grandmother (who had initially returned to Ireland with intent to stay) in the mid-50s and subsequently attended schools in Aldershot (Hampshire), and, following the death and repatriation of his grandmother, Carshalton Beeches (Surrey), where, despite an enforced change of denomination from Catholic to Protestant, he attended a state school. Graduating in 1970 with an assortment of CSE's (Certificate of Secondary Education) and GCE's (General Certificate of Education), including history and music, he moved the comparatively short distance up to London and went on, via two short-lived jobs, to work at the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music in Bedford Square, WC1, where he eventually became responsible, as a clerical officer, for booking examination venues. After a brief flirtation with Redhill Technical College back in Surrey, where he had enrolled to study history, he returned to his former job in the West End but left the ABRSM in 1976 due to a combination of factors and began to dedicate himself to writing, which, despite a brief spell as a computer tutor at Hornsey Management Agency in the late '80s and early '90s, he has continued with ever since. His novels include Changing Worlds (1976), Cross-Purposes (1979), Thwarted Ambitions (1980), Sublimated Relations (1981), and Deceptive Motives (1982). From the mid-80s Mr O'Loughlin more or less exclusively dedicated himself to philosophy, which he regards as his true literary vocation, and has penned more than sixty titles of a philosophical order, including Devil and God - The Omega Book (1985-6), Towards the Supernoumenon (1987), Elemental Spectra (1988-9), and Philosophical Truth (1991-2). John O'Loughlin lives in Crouch End, north London, England, UK, where he continues to regard himself as a kind of bohemian intellectual.
