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PSYCHSOPHY

                                                            December 10, 2007

   When I was around 20, I had
   the notion that it would
   be interesting to do a                            TOADKEEPER
   psychological study of
   philosophical tendencies:                 The Toadkeeper disliked
                                             this idea intensely.
   What kind of ideas
   appeal to different                       I think he was
   kinds of people because                   enamored of a vision
   of the kinds of people                    of philosophy as a
   they are?                                 pure pursuit of truth,
                                             uncorrupted by any
     I note without                          worldly influence.
     much surprise that
     Bertrand Russell
     got there before me:
                                      WHAT_ARE_THEY_TO_ME

        "Traditional mysticism has been contemplative,
        convinced of the unreality of time, and
        essentially a lazy man's philosophy.  The
        psychological prelude to the mystic
        illumination is the dark 'night of the soul',
        when a man is hopelessly balked in his
        practical activities, or for some reason
        suddenly loses interest in them.  Activity
        being thus ruled out, he takes to contemplation."

        "... the man who has been driven to contemplation
        presently discovers that contemplation is the true
        end of life, and that the real world is hidden from
        those who are immersed in mundane activities."

                   Bertrand Russell, "Philosophy in the Twentieth Century"
                   p. 266 of "The Basic Writings"



                                          LAOTZU



    And I gather William James got there
    even earlier:

       "James had not actually read very
       much Hegel, but he took the view
       that the sort of philosopher one
       is drawn to is a reflection of
       one's own personality; his
       colleague George Hervert Palmer
       (the man who had killed Peirce's
       chances at Chicago) was a
       Hegelian, and James considered
       Palmer an insufferable prig."

                Louis Menand,
                "The Metaphysical Club" (2001)
                p.358, hardback






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