[MD] Classic or Romantic? Yes, definitely.

[John Carl]

Thanks dave,  a realization I've been hoping to get from you for a long
time.

One big difference of course, is that Royce and James were much more on the
same level  - both being classically trained philosophers and discussion
centered around the same issues.  Thus they fed each other  ideas.  The
fruitfulness of their relationship had a huge impact on American
Philosophy.


> I was thinking about this the other day when it occurred me that there is
> an interesting parallel between James's relationship with Royceand Pirsig's
> relationship to John Sutherland. In both cases, they were friendships that
> persisted despite their opposed temperaments. And in the final analysis
> James and Pirsig both come to the conclusion that the best thing to do is
> combine the two types of approaches into a more well-rounded and integrated
> approach. Neither one of them recommend one to the exclusion of the other.
> And where do they land? Radical empiricism is tough-minded because it is
> empirical but it is also tender-minded because it puts Quality or pure
> experience at the front edge of that empirical reality so that feeling is at
> the very center of thought.
>