Brand Blanshard

From Whose Togas I Dangle

Brand Blanshard

August 27, 1892-November 18, 1987

Photo [left column, top] is by Richard P. Lewis, July 1976 as published, Man of Reason: In Memoriam Brand Blanshard. Roland A. Hoover, University Printer, Yale University Printing Service, New Haven, Connecticut: 1988, 32 pp. "A memorial service in honor of Brand Blanshard was held December 16, 1987, in Dwight Memorial Chapel of Yale University. The memories and appreciations spoken that day and some from letters are printed in this booklet," which Roberta Yerkes Blanshard, Blanshard's widow, mailed me on May 5, 1992.

Other pictures of Blanshard shown here are from his days at Swarthmore College (1925-1944) and first appeared in its yearbook, Halcyon. These gems were brought to my attention by David Marans, Professor of Philosophy at Saint Thomas University (Miami).

To hear Blanshard answer a student's questions in conversation, visit this page on Scott Palmer's website. On this page are links of .mp3 files for (so far) three segments of the conversation, for which a complete transcript is also provided.

Anthony Flood

Updated September 3, 2011

Francis Herbert Bradley [1925]
The Seventh International Congress of Philosophy, Oxford, 1930 [1930]
The Nature of Mind [1941]
Current Strictures on Reason [1945]
Current Strictures on Reason: A Rejoinder [1946]
Can Men Be Reasonable? [1947]
The Heritage of Idealism [1949]
On Philosophical Style [1953]
The Impasse in Ethics and a Way Out [1954]
The Case for Determinism [1957]
Foreword to Arthur Pap, Semantics and Necessary Truth [1958]
Education in the Age of Science [1959]
Prefatory note to Alfred North Whitehead, "The Aims of Education"
Quantity and Quality in American Education [1960]
The Philosophic Enterprise [1961]
The Rational Will [1961]
On Sanity in Thought and Art [1962]
Arthur Pap: A Memoir [1962]
Reflections on Economic Determinism [1964]
Reason and Unreason in Religion [1966]
The Life of the Spirit in a Machine Age [1967]
Wisdom [1967]
The Problem of Consciousness: A Debate with B. F. Skinner [1967]
Rejoinder to a Criticism of My Theory of Universals [1968]
The Limits of Naturalism [1970]
The Revolt against Reason in Theology [1970]
Rationalism [1974]
Alfred Cyril Ewing, 1899-1973 [1974]
For One Who Is Liberally Educated, Life Is Far Too Short [1975]
On the Difficulties of Being Reasonable [1982]
The Habit of Reason [1984]

Reviews

J. M. E. McTaggart, The Nature of Existence, Volume I [1922]
J. M. E. McTaggart, The Nature of Existence, Volume II [1923]
J. E. Turner, A Theory of Direct Realism [1925]
J. M. E. McTaggart, Studies in the Hegelian Dialectic [1929]
F. R. Tennant, Philosophy of the Sciences [1932]
Ernst Cassirer, An Essay on Man [1945]
The Return to Reason: Essays in Realistic Philosophy [1954]
Richard Wollheim, F. H. Bradley [1961]
Mortimer J. Adler, The Conditions of Philosophy [1965]

On Blanshard

Ernest Nagel, Sovereign Reason
Karsten Harries, Brand Blanshard: 1892-1987
Frederick Copleston, A Review of Brand Blanshard, Reason and Belief
John Hospers, A Review of Brand Blanshard, Reason and Belief
Charles Hartshorne, Blanshard's Necessitarianism
George H. Smith, Review of Brand Blanshard, The Uses of a Liberal Education
Scott Palmer, A Conversation with Brand Blanshard [Off-site. Under "Philosophy and Economics" in left column.]
A Progressive Living Biography [Off-site]
Wikipedia Article [Off-site]
Blanshard Volume in Library of Living Philosophers [Off-site]
Scott Ryan's reviews of Blanshard's works [Off-site]
The Rational Temper: Brand Blanshard and What Objectivists Can Learn From Him by Scott Ryan [Off-site]
New York Times obituary [Off-site]

We must regard mind as a process in which the potential realizes or actualizes itself. It is the sort of process in which that which is to be determines, in part, the course of its coming to be. Mind acts as it does because pressing in and through the present is a world that clamors to be born. . . .[P]resent in the thing that now is, making it what it is, controlling the course of its change, is a special impulsion or drive that cannot be conceived except as a drive toward a special end. This is suggested in our speech; we say, that is an elm tree shoot, identifying what it is through what it is becoming, and suggesting that if we are to understand its present nature, we must grasp that nature as the imperfectly realized form of something else. This is true always of what develops, and true only of this. . . . What develops cannot be conceived except as the partial realization of that which as fully actual, is yet to be.

Religion is an attempt to adjust one's nature as a whole to ultimate reality. In a sense all human life is that. But whereas the larger part of such life consists of an adjustment to what is immediately around us, religion seeks to go behind the appearance of things to what is self-subsistent, to something which, intellectually and causally, will ex-plain everything else. And it must be conceived as a response of man's nature as a whole.

Religion is man's attempt to live in the light of what he holds to be ultimately true and good. . . . Religion is not loyalty to the ultimately true and good, but only what we hold to be such. It has always been this, however much more it may have claimed to be.

Foreword to Arthur Pap, Semantics and Necessary Truth [1958]

Ernest Nagel, Sovereign Reason

Karsten Harries, Brand Blanshard: 1892-1987

			AnthonyFlood.com Philosophy against Misosophy
	Home Essays by Me Essays by Others 1936 1939 1940 1941 *[Links to Halcyon, Swarth-more's yearbook. (Hat tip to David Marans: check out his Open Access Logic Gallery: Aristotle to the Present.]* 1943		From Whose Togas I Dangle Brand Blanshard August 27, 1892-November 18, 1987 Photo [left column, top] is by Richard P. Lewis, July 1976 as published, Man of Reason: In Memoriam Brand Blanshard. Roland A. Hoover, University Printer, Yale University Printing Service, New Haven, Connecticut: 1988, 32 pp. "A memorial service in honor of Brand Blanshard was held December 16, 1987, in Dwight Memorial Chapel of Yale University. The memories and appreciations spoken that day and some from letters are printed in this booklet," which Roberta Yerkes Blanshard, Blanshard's widow, mailed me on May 5, 1992. Other pictures of Blanshard shown here are from his days at Swarthmore College (1925-1944) and first appeared in its yearbook, Halcyon. These gems were brought to my attention by David Marans, Professor of Philosophy at Saint Thomas University (Miami). To hear Blanshard answer a student's questions in conversation, visit this page on Scott Palmer's website. On this page are links of .mp3 files for (so far) three segments of the conversation, for which a complete transcript is also provided. Anthony Flood Updated September 3, 2011 Francis Herbert Bradley [1925] The Seventh International Congress of Philosophy, Oxford, 1930 [1930] The Nature of Mind [1941] Current Strictures on Reason [1945] Current Strictures on Reason: A Rejoinder [1946] Can Men Be Reasonable? [1947] The Heritage of Idealism [1949] On Philosophical Style [1953] The Impasse in Ethics and a Way Out [1954] The Case for Determinism [1957] Foreword to Arthur Pap, Semantics and Necessary Truth [1958] Education in the Age of Science [1959] Prefatory note to Alfred North Whitehead, "The Aims of Education" Quantity and Quality in American Education [1960] The Philosophic Enterprise [1961] The Rational Will [1961] On Sanity in Thought and Art [1962] Arthur Pap: A Memoir [1962] Reflections on Economic Determinism [1964] Reason and Unreason in Religion [1966] The Life of the Spirit in a Machine Age [1967] Wisdom [1967] The Problem of Consciousness: A Debate with B. F. Skinner [1967] Rejoinder to a Criticism of My Theory of Universals [1968] The Limits of Naturalism [1970] The Revolt against Reason in Theology [1970] Rationalism [1974] Alfred Cyril Ewing, 1899-1973 [1974] For One Who Is Liberally Educated, Life Is Far Too Short [1975] On the Difficulties of Being Reasonable [1982] The Habit of Reason [1984] Reviews J. M. E. McTaggart, The Nature of Existence, Volume I [1922] J. M. E. McTaggart, The Nature of Existence, Volume II [1923] *J. E. Turner, A Theory of Direct Realism* [1925] J. M. E. McTaggart, Studies in the Hegelian Dialectic [1929] F. R. Tennant, Philosophy of the Sciences [1932] Ernst Cassirer, An Essay on Man [1945]** The Return to Reason: Essays in Realistic Philosophy [1954] *Richard Wollheim, F. H. Bradley* [1961] Mortimer J. Adler, The Conditions of Philosophy [1965] On Blanshard Ernest Nagel, Sovereign Reason** Karsten Harries, Brand Blanshard: 1892-1987 Frederick Copleston, A Review of Brand Blanshard, Reason and Belief John Hospers, A Review of Brand Blanshard, Reason and Belief Charles Hartshorne, Blanshard's Necessitarianism George H. Smith, Review of Brand Blanshard, The Uses of a Liberal Education Scott Palmer, A Conversation with Brand Blanshard [Off-site. Under "Philosophy and Economics" in left column.] A Progressive Living Biography [Off-site] Wikipedia Article [Off-site] Blanshard Volume in Library of Living Philosophers [Off-site] Scott Ryan's reviews of Blanshard's works [Off-site] The Rational Temper: Brand Blanshard and What Objectivists Can Learn From Him by Scott Ryan [Off-site] New York Times obituary [Off-site] We must regard mind as a process in which the potential realizes or actualizes itself. It is the sort of process in which that which is to be determines, in part, the course of its coming to be. Mind acts as it does because pressing in and through the present is a world that clamors to be born. . . .[P]resent in the thing that now is, making it what it is, controlling the course of its change, is a special impulsion or drive that cannot be conceived except as a drive toward a special end. This is suggested in our speech; we say, that is an elm tree shoot, identifying what it is through what it is becoming, and suggesting that if we are to understand its present nature, we must grasp that nature as the imperfectly realized form of something else. This is true always of what develops, and true only of this. . . . What develops cannot be conceived except as the partial realization of that which as fully actual, is yet to be. "The Nature of Mind" Religion is an attempt to adjust one's nature as a whole to ultimate reality. In a sense all human life is that. But whereas the larger part of such life consists of an adjustment to what is immediately around us, religion seeks to go behind the appearance of things to what is self-subsistent, to something which, intellectually and causally, will ex-plain everything else. And it must be conceived as a response of man's nature as a whole. Reason and Belief, 434 Religion is man's attempt to live in the light of what he holds to be ultimately true and good. . . . Religion is not loyalty to the ultimately true and good, but only what we hold to be such. It has always been this, however much more it may have claimed to be. Reason and Belief, 555 The treatment of evil by theology seems to me an intellectual disgrace. The question at issue is a straightforward one: how are the actual amount and distribution of evil to be reconciled with the government of the world by a God which is in our sense good? So straightforward a question deserves a straightforward answer, and it seems to me that only one such answer makes sense, namely that the two sides can not be reconciled. . . . Some theologians, aware of this conflict, have at certain points resorted to open revolt against reason and its morality. We have studied this revolt in the theological line that runs from Luther through Kierkegaard to Brunner and Barth, and seen that it is self-destructive. For my own part, I am ready to stand correction for the ignobility of my naturalistic ethics, but not from theologians of this stripe. If their ideal of goodness is the will of a Deity who could inflict or permit the evil we know in the world, they have no consistent standard at all. How can anyone of clean conscience call good in the Deity what he would regard as intensely evil in man? To tie ethics to the will of such a being is not to exalt one's ethics but to reduce it to incoherence. Reason and Belief, 546-47