Spare a Thought for Philosophy: An Interview with A.C. Grayling

[rug]

by: Will Bordell
Published in the January / February 2013 Humanist

Bertrand Russell said, ‘Most people would rather die than think; most people do,’” quips the British philosopher A.C. Grayling, leaning forward in his chair at a London café as though offering me a truffle of wisdom for my delectation. Philosophy is a rather strange business in the modern world of consumerism and commerce, I suppose. We’re so used to being force-fed ideas these days that we rarely, if ever, stop and think for ourselves. And that’s where Grayling bucks the trend.

Author of over twenty books, including The Good Book: A Humanist Bible, as well as countless newspaper and magazine columns, Grayling has been a paradigm of humanism for many years: vice president of the British Humanist Association, patron of the UK organization Dignity in Dying, honorary associate of the National Secular Society… the list goes on. And yet, anyone anticipating stuffy Socratic dialogue with a kooky academic or a living, breathing replica of Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker (with added mane), would be taken aback by Grayling’s down-to-earth, congenial presence.

What makes Grayling tick, in his words, is “the fact that the world is so rich in interest and in puzzles, and that the task of finding out as much as we can about it is not an endless task, but certainly one which is going to take us many, many millennia to complete.” There’s a sort of childlike grin that beams out at me, as he affirms: “That’s exciting—discovery is exciting.” Grayling takes pleasure in doubt and possibility, in invention and innovation: the tasks of the open mind and open inquiry. It’s a mindset, he reveals, that “loves the open-endedness and the continuing character of the conversation that humankind has with itself about all these things that really matter.”

It’s also a way of thinking that marks a line in the sand between religion and science. The temptation to fall for the former—hook, line, and sinker—is plain to see: “People like narratives, they like to have an explanation, they like to know where they are going.” Weaving another string of thought into his tapestry of human psychology, Grayling laments that his fellow human beings “don’t want to have to think these things out for themselves. They like the nice, pre-packaged answer that’s just handed to them by somebody authoritative with a big beard.” He looks down towards a small flower arrangement on the table, and plays with it contemplatively before continuing in an almost plaintive tone: “And that is a kind of betrayal, in a way, of the fact that we have curiosity but, most of all, we have intelligence and so we should be questioning, challenging, trying to find out.”

http://thehumanist.org/january-february-2013/spare-a-thought-for-philosophy-an-interview-with-a-c-grayling/#.UN4n204ngBc.email

[toby jo]

1. Rug, thanks for the heads up on what sounds like a good, sound, guy

I've been looking for something to read up on this winter, maybe I'll give him a try - he sounds a little like
the guy who wrote "the power of myth" - his name slips my mind.... Joe Campbell.

[rug]

2. You're welcome.

Wiki has some more on him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.C._Grayling

[rrneck]

3. Bookmarked for later. nt

[tama]

4. Spare a thought

Philosophy is about much more than active thinking. Plato wrote his writings as invitations to philosophy, not as representations of what philosophy is about and means. The "real thing" was live dialogues in the Academy, dialogue being in essence a meditative practice of (partially) silencing the internal chatter, listening, and going with the flow in compassionate and supportive environment, so that there can be both peace of mind and opening to creative and balanced thoughts. The Bohm (and Krishnamurti) practice of dialogue is philosophy in the original Platonic sense: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohm_Dialogue

[Jim__]

5. Does anyone know the source for the quote from Bertrand Russell?

Bertrand Russell said, ‘Most people would rather die than think; most people do,’

.

Russell was a true skeptic; I doubt he would accept that remark as true. If he said it, I'd like to see the context.

[rug]

6. You might find it in here.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell

You're right, that quote does sound off.

[Jim__]

7. Thanks. That says "The ABC of Relativity."

But, I searched that book for a number of keywords on google, and it doesn't find the quote.