Talking with Mihailis Diamantis, you wouldn't know instantly that he is, as Professor of English David Sofield describes him, "the kind of learner one sees once a decade at Amherst." You can certainly tell that he is intelligent, but what you might not catch until you've spoken with him a little longer is the way he listens and the way he makes an effort to learn from you and from everyone around him, as if someone winning awards for theses in two departments has anything more to learn. A conversation with Diamantis, as many students at Amherst doubtless know, is refreshing. For once, someone obviously intelligent actually wants to listen to someone else, to do more than listen to himself speak-and it is not as if Diamantis doesn't have enough to talk about on his own.

Three times the fun

Diamantis is a triple major in English, philosophy and math. He wrote theses in the philosophy and math departments, but Diamantis notes that math, while he enjoys it, is something he added into the mix mainly to be "a little more practical." Before coming to Amherst from his Hunstville, Ala. home, Diamantis' interests were in philosophy, religion and political science. But as many Amherst students who have tried combinations of the humanities know, these proved to be "too related to each other." Math is like philosophy of course, dealing in issues of logic, proofs and theories. But Diamantis insists it is more practical and down-to-earth. "In math there's actually an answer," he said. Philosophy and English provide no such luxury.

Both of Diamantis' theses had complicated topics. His philosophy thesis was on dualism and the relationship of consciousness and the body. "Frank Jackson wrote a paper in the '80s trying to legitimize the dualism theory, that consciousness is more than the simple make-up of our mind," Diamantis explained. Jackson later withdrew support from his own paper, but Diamantis wanted to lend credence to Jackson's early hypothesis. "Religion calls it a soul," he said, "and Aristotle might have called it a psyche." Asked if he understands Aristotle, being a philosophy major, Mihailis responded, "to an extent, as much as an undergraduate can hope to understand [him]." Diamantis understood him well enough to receive the award for the best philosophy thesis.

Diamantis' math thesis was on the subject of "the independence of the continuum hypothesis." His work earned him co-recipient honors for best math thesis.

An armored academic

Diamantis' academic interests reach far beyond both his majors and his theses. Hearing him talk about why he loves Chaucer would be enough to prove to any Williams student that some Amherst students enjoy learning for its own sake. "[Chaucer has a] surprisingly modern sensibility of wit and humor while maintaining a medieval aura of respectability," Diamantis said. "Middle English is perfectly metered and perfectly rhymed, though colloquial when it needs to be." He couldn't remember the name of his favorite story in "The Canterbury Tales," but he was quick to describe it. "It's the one where three men try to find death and are told it's under that tree. All they find is a bag of money, which of course leads to all three killing each other." He's always been a fan of medieval history, which explains his love of fencing.

Diamantis ran the fencing program at Amherst for three years after joining the team as a first-year. "Fencing has a kind of nobility," he said. In truth, it isn't hard to imagine Diamantis as knight in a previous life. He has quite the work ethic: "[He] would come up with these insanely painful fencing drills, and we'd do these drills," said teammate Ben Purkis '07. "When we finished, he'd pop up and say, 'OK, that was fun, let's do a more painful one.' And we'd have practices like that. It was great fun." Purkis used the word "sadomasochist" to describe Diamantis, but Purkis laughed all the while. "He's a great, amazing guy," said Purkis. "What more is there to say?"

Renaissance man

But despite exceptional credentials, Diamantis is more than just an academic fencer. He's been an AAS senator for two years (junior and senior), winning this year's award for distinguished senator along with Lincoln Mayer. He dabbled in the College Republicans, wrote for The Amherst Spectator (a magazine that has since dissolved) and edited Capitol Pages, a magazine on international policy that has also disbanded. "I guess I was sort of bad luck for publications," Diamantis joked.

He used to play the violin. Now he plays the recorder and also steadfastly plays the video game "Fallout," a Role Playing Game (RPG) for Playstation. "You have to play with a friend," he said. "The social component is only there with a friend." Diamantis is also proficient in Modern Greek. After a failed attempt to take it through a program at Dartmouth College, he taught himself the language through individual study. It is the only language he knows other than English, he acknowledged, as if being only bilingual is somehow a deficiency. If it were, it would be quite explicable, considering his three majors.

He also dabbled in art while at the College, taking three studio classes: Drawing 2, the Drawing seminar and Printmaking. He remains unsure as to whether or not he'll continue after Amherst. "I'd like to," he noted, "but printmaking requires large, expensive machinery, and it's an unrealistic hobby."

To infinity and beyond

Next year Diamantis is heading off to Yale Law School, where he hopes to continue fencing and maybe pull off a dual degree in law and philosophy. Diamantis is interested in public law and humanitarian law, specifically through the United Nations or a similar organization. Working for the U.N. is a possibility, he notes, although he's still unsure of where he'll go, armed with his Yale degree and Amherst background. Diamantis would like to be a philosophy professor someday, after adding a Ph.D. to the Masters' degree he hopes to get at Yale. For someone as keenly interested in the pursuit of knowledge as he, a professorship seems a logical goal.

Diamantis looks forward to next year, and of course, like many others, he looks back fondly on his four years at Amherst. If he had the chance to make different choices for his education, to go to a different college, he wouldn't. "The quality of interaction I've had with my teachers has overcome the problems I had with the College," he said, smiling, and of course thinking carefully about his answer. His teachers agree. Sofield described Diamantis as "the most meticulously organized mind since Aristotle ... Couple that with his strong Greek heart, and there is no reason to doubt that he will be the dean of the Yale Law School in about the time it takes the rest of us to master the pronunciation of 'Hermes Trismegistus.'"

Diamantis will be sorely missed at Amherst. But perhaps in 30 years or so, he'll be back, teaching philosophy. By then, the rest of us should be able to pronounce almost anything.