[MD] James on the BBC

[david buchanan]

I'm gonna listen to it again. Damn! I thought I was an enthusiast but the guests really have me pumped up now. Did I hear that right? The greatest American philosopher ever? Is that what he said? 

I'd like the future of philosophy to revolve around one crucial question for the next few centuries: Who was the greatest, Pirsig or James? 

James said something like, "the most important thing about a philosopher is his vision". He was talking about one's whole way of seeing, of taking life rather than positions on this or that particular thing. In that sense, I think Pirsig and James offer the same vision. 

Something more than logic. James knew his way of doing things would mean of loss of rigor and exactitude, and that's not the price we pay for what he wanted so much as part of what he wanted. He and Pirsig both think rationality is hollow and brittle without some soul in it, some feeling. Not pasted on but in the roots of our conceptions. Pirsig is making his case against the backdrop of a technological society but James was living in the age of Darwin and positivism. They both began in the sciences and then turned to philosophy. 



> Date: Sun, 16 May 2010 06:01:22 +0200
> From: ian.glendinning at gmail.com
> To: moq_discuss at moqtalk.org
> Subject: Re: [MD] James on the BBC
> 
> And very good it was.
> Still available for listening.
> 
> Loved the caricature at the end in discussing Wittgenstein's love of
> James, of seeing the 20th century struggle between the dominance of
> logic (Russell) winning out over something more than logic (James),
> yet being signs of a revival of the latter.
> 
> And earlier the idea of scientists being in the grip of scientistic dogma.
> 
> Ian
> 
> On Sat, May 8, 2010 at 11:52 AM, Ian Glendinning
> <ian.glendinning at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Just noticed that next week's BBC Radio 4 In Our Time is on
> > William James "Varieties ..."
> > http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qykl
> >
> > Ian
> >
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