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Title: Philosophy of Brand Blanshard (Library of Living Philosophers, V0L 15) by Brand Blanshard, Paul Arthur Schilpp ISBN: 0-87548-349-6 Publisher: Open Court Publishing Company Pub. Date: December, 1980 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $42.95

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: Brand Blanshard--Philosophy one can read.
Comment: Doctor Blanshard has been criticized for not being a very original thinker. Whatever one thinks about original thought, one must admire a philosopher who expends the effort necessary to be understood and never hides in obscurity. Blanshard wrote a book 'On philosophical Style' and a better example of excellence in writing style cannot be found than this book edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp. As a student of philosophy I always found it difficult to locate material that could present philosophy alive and allow one to study it as though taking part in the ideas. As each philosopher presents Blanshard with his/her criticism, one finds oneself actively participating in the cut and thrust of ideas as Blanshard responds at the end of each essay. Only the dialogues of Plato rival this work in providing the reader with the impression that he/she is present as great minds exchange ideas. The professional and amateur will long treasure this fine example of philosophical debate. END

Rating: 5
Summary: The "rational temper" and its best exemplar
Comment: Brand Blanshard, easily the twentieth century's sturdiest defender of reason, rationality and the "rational temper," exemplified that temper in every line of his graceful prose. His solid defenses of e.g. the nature of mind as seeking and striving after ends, the end of thought as systematic understanding, the coherence theory of truth, the objective existence of necessary logical and causal connections, the universe as a strongly coherent logical and causal whole in which every fact entails and is entailed by every other, the meaning of "goodness" as the objective fulfillment of human ends accompanied by the taking of satisfaction in that fulfillment -- his defenses of these views and others won the admiration of friends and critics alike, both for the thoroughness of his approach and for the generosity with which he treated opposing positions. In this volume he exchanges essays with many of those friends and critics, providing yet again not only a defense of his views but an admirable example of how to conduct oneself in philosophical controversy. In a departure from the practice followed in the other volumes in this series, Blanshard replies to each critical essay individually rather than in one long reply at the volume's end. The effect is that the book reads like an extended philosophical conversation, in which Blanshard deals personally and closely with each thinker in turn. His replies also indicate where his thought had grown and developed since the publication of _The Nature of Thought_ in the 1930s, thereby continuing his thought along the lines laid down in _Reason and Analysis_, _Reason and Goodness_, and Reason and Belief_. The essays and replies are arranged topically, covering the full range of Blanshard's rationalist philosophy. And an introductory autobiographical essay provides a delightfully personal introduction to the man himself. No student of Blanshard can afford to miss this thorough and thoroughly engaging volume.