Fly and the Fly Bottle is perhaps Ved Mehta's masterpiece: a collection of his brilliantly revealing conversations with some of the twentieth century's most important philosophers. Engaging with such heavyweights as Isaiah Berlin, Gilbert Ryle, and Elizabeth Anscombe, Mehta is not only able to shed light on the personalities involved in shaping modern philosophy, as well as on the particularities of that philosophic thought, but also to minutely examine the surrounding atmosphere of mid-century British life.
Excerpt from Fly and the Fly-Bottle: Encounters With British Intellectuals Ryle, does not accuse linguistic philosophers of 'disin genuousness This word does not occur in it once, let alone one hundred times. It does attack linguistic doctrines and methods as inherently evasive. This claim does not require (though it does not exclude) conscious dishonesty. I am sorry to see Professor Ryle resorting to one further device, the exclusion of criticism as indecorous, and thus evading once again the substantive issue of the merits of linguistic phi losophy. Gellner's letter left me baffled. I was still wondering whether Ryle had an excuse for not review ing the book. My skepticism was not shared by a knighted gentleman, Sir Leslie F arrer, private solicitor to the Queen, who appeared on the same page as Gellner. Sir Leslie defended the author of Words and Things with a sharp tongue. Ridicule, he wrote, is one of the oldest and not the least effective weapons of phi losophic warfare, but yet we find Professor Ryle speaking no doubt 'ex cathedra on a matter of faith or morals, ' propounding the dogma that making fun of members of the Sacred College of Linguistic Philoso phers is mortal sin. True, Ryle's first description Of Gellner was the word 'abusive' and his second that he 'made imputations Of disingenuousness, ' but those who read Words and Things' (and I trust they will be many) may agree with me that 'made fun Of' is a more accurate description. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Fly and the Fly-Bottle: Encounters with Contemporary British Intellectuals is a book by Ved Mehta that delves into the lives and thoughts of some of the most influential intellectuals in Britain during the 20th century. Through a series of interviews and personal reflections, Mehta provides an insightful and engaging look at the ideas and personalities of figures such as Isaiah Berlin, Iris Murdoch, and Richard Hoggart.The book's title is derived from a famous quote by philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, who compared the difficulty of understanding his work to that of trying to catch a fly in a bottle. Mehta uses this metaphor to explore the complexities of intellectual thought and the challenges of communicating it to a wider audience.Each chapter of the book focuses on a different intellectual and their unique contributions to British culture and society. Mehta draws on his own experiences as a blind writer and journalist to provide a unique perspective on the challenges and rewards of intellectual inquiry.Fly and the Fly-Bottle is a fascinating and thought-provoking read that offers a glimpse into the minds of some of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of British intellectual thought and the challenges of communicating complex ideas to a wider audience.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.
A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A vibrant portrait of four college friends—Iris Murdoch, Philippa Foot, Elizabeth Anscombe, and Mary Midgley—who formed a new philosophical tradition while Oxford's men were away fighting World War II. The history of European philosophy is usually constructed from the work of men. In Metaphysical Animals, a pioneering group biography, Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman offer a compelling alternative. In the mid-twentieth century Elizabeth Anscombe, Mary Midgley, Philippa Foot, and Iris Murdoch were philosophy students at Oxford when most male undergraduates and many tutors were conscripted away to fight in the Second World War. Together, these young women, all friends, developed a philosophy that could respond to the war’s darkest revelations. Neither the great Enlightenment thinkers of the past, the logical innovators of the early twentieth century, or the new Existentialist philosophy trickling across the Channel, could make sense of this new human reality of limitless depravity and destructive power, the women felt. Their answer was to bring philosophy back to life. We are metaphysical animals, they realized, creatures that can question their very being. Who am I? What is freedom? What is human goodness? The answers we give, they believed, shape what we will become. Written with expertise and flair, Metaphysical Animals is a lively portrait of women who shared ideas, but also apartments, clothes and even lovers. Mac Cumhaill and Wiseman show how from the disorder and despair of the war, four brilliant friends created a way of ethical thinking that is there for us today.
Tome III traces Kierkegaard's influence on Anglophone philosophy. It has long been thought that Kierkegaard played no role in this tradition, which for years was dominated by analytic philosophy. In this environment it was common to dismiss Kierkegaard along with the then current European philosophers who were influenced by him. However, a closer look reveals that in fact there were several thinkers in the US, Canada and Great Britain who were inspired by Kierkegaard even during the heyday of analytic philosophy. Current thinking now suggests that Kierkegaard has made some serious inroads into mainstream Anglophone philosophy, with many authors seeking inspiration in his works for current discussions concerning ethics, personal identity, philosophy of religion, and philosophical anthropology.
