November 12, 2004

MICHAEL BLOWHARD discovers philosopher Stephen Toulmin. I'm Greg Ransom and I endorse that discovery. Quotable:
Reading Toulmin, I felt like a cage had been lifted off my head. Like the other thinkers I listed above, Toulmin had the effect of decompressing and de-neuroticizing my thought processes. Your own procedures and your own experiences are basically OK. You may want to enrich and enhance the standard thing -- but it isn't really necessary, despite what the experts would have you believe. And if you do want to extend your reach, why not base your quest on what you're already comfortable with? And, by the way, why not make the experts perform their pirouettes in ways that suit us? Interesting to note that Toulmin thinks that philosophers are often at their best not when they're doing philosophy in the usual, abstract sense but when they're sitting with someone from a different field and helping that person puzzle out questions and issues.
Toulmin is one of the living greats and MB does a fine job introducing ordinary folks to a central slice of an extraordinary writer and thinker. For those who'd like a taste, Toulmin's The Uses of Argument is a classic. For those who enjoy the history of ideas, Toulmin's Cosmopolis : The Hidden Agenda of Modernity is full of good stuff. Those who know their Hayek will discover riffs on several classic Hayekian themes. How familiar Toulmin might be with the work of Hayek I have no idea. If you have a guess, drop me a note. Posted by Greg Ransom