I agree that the caste system is offensive. But Schilpp knew the guy albeit
through a translator. Schilpp also spent extensive periods of time working
with the following individuals as editor (and creator) of the Library of Living
Philosophers series:
The Philosophy of John Dewey (Volume I, 1939)
The Philosophy of George Santayana (Volume II, 1940)
The Philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead (Volume III, 1941)
The Philosophy of G.E. Moore (Volume IV, 1942)
The Philosophy of Bertrand Russell (Volume V, 1944)
The Philosophy of Ernst Cassirer (Volume VI, 1949)
Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist (Volume VII, 1949)
The Philosophy of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (Volume VIII, 1952)
The Philosophy of Karl Jaspers (Volume IX, 1957, 1981)
The Philosophy of C.D. Broad (Volume X, 1959)
The Philosophy of Rudolf Carnap (Volume XI, 1963)
The Philosophy of Martin Buber (Volume XII, 1967)
The Philosophy of C.I. Lewis (Volume XIII, 1968)
The Philosophy of Karl Popper (Volume XIV, 1974)
The Philosophy of Brand Blanshard (Volume XV, 1980)
The Philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre (Volume XVI, 1981)
To this day these are considered definitive volmes on these people. (P.s. I
have a feeling Schilpp could hold his own on this forum). By the way, do you
know who the secretary was who transcribed Schilpp's talk?
you guessed it...
curtisdeltablues <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Predictably I disagree with Schilpp's assessment of what the world
needs, including his opposition to the US entering WWII. I strongly
disagree with his assertion that Guru Dev was a valuable source of
values since his support of the caste system's oppressiveness puts him
at the ethical level of Strom Thurman. Any guy who is going to ask to
be taken seriously as a moral authority is gunna at least have to
clear the bar of our lowest social values. That is not repressing
people due to their birth. It is immoral and wrong. Appealing to the
"tradition" of oppression does not get him off the hook any more than
it did for good ol' boy Strom.
--- In [email protected], Jonathan Chadwick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>
> "For me [Guru Dev] was just like the guy I pass on the way to the
Dupont Circle metro who waves a Bible at me telling me to get saved
cuz the end is near. Sad, and homeless."
>
> [From Paul Mason's Website]. Speech quoted in 'Amrit Kana' (a
book of quotations of Guru Dev, Shankaracharya Swami Brahmanand
Saraswati. The speech is from an event on 22nd December 1950, and the
speaker is 'Dr. Paal', most probably Professor Paul Arthur
Schilpp:-'To-day we are here to do homage to his Holiness, Shri
Jagatguru Shankaracharya Ananta Sri Vibhusita Swami Brahmananda
Saraswati of Jyotirmath, Badarikasram - the Superman, the seer, the
sage, who is one of the few rare individuals amongst the billions of
the citizens of the world, whom we would unhesitatingly choose if and
when we would be called upon to describe the spiritual and cultural
capital of our nation, if and when the world would feel the need of
evoking the part our nation can play in it, who is beyond any
controversy, one of the rare few who have contributed and can still
contribute something to universal peaceful progress, who have risen by
their talent and genius above their fellow countrymen,
> above their fellowmen of the world and have thus gained a place for
themselves at the head of humanity, at the extreme spearhead of
civilization.
> Standing here at a time when everywhere in the world everybody
feels not a little bewildered at an immense increase in the sense of
human power, we can hardly exaggerate the necessity of teachers like
his Holiness the Jagatguru.
> You will pardon me if I venture; at this assemblage of eminent
philosophers, to refer to an aspect of our Hindu Philosophy which
seems for the time being, to be too much belittled by the
power-intoxicated world.
> Our Vedic philosophers.... ....
> The civilized world today is indeed in an age of spiritual chaos,
intellectual doubt and political decadence. Civilized man today no
doubt has acquired immense scientific and mechanical resources, but
seems hopelessly to lack the wisdom to apply them to the best
advantage. This is why we witness a growing sense of frustration
seizing every mind almost everywhere. The whole world seems to be
suffering from an epidemic of hysteria.................
> We do not know which way the truth lies. Perhaps even here it will
be true to say that every truth, however true in itself, yet taken
apart from others, becomes only a snare. In reality, perhaps, each is
one thread of a complex weft, and no thread can be taken apart from
the weft. But this much seems to be certain that there is this
paralysing fear and alarm almost everywhere in the world-everywhere
even the most powerful minds have not succeeded in escaping it
altogether. Everywhere humanity is beginning to feel that we are being
betrayed by what is false within, - we are almost giving way to find
ourselves spiritually paralysed.
> This indeed is a deadly malady. The patient here must first of all
be brought to see that he is sick and to want to get well and to do of
himself what is needed to get well. Perhaps something is away both
with the heart and the brain.
> The world needs philosopher-teachers like His Holiness Shri
Jagatguru Shankaracharya who can reveal the world of values and can
make us realize that, that is the real world. The world badly needs
guidance to a creed of values and ideals. The world needs a teacher
who can dispel our fears and can remove all sense of frustration or
least in so far as it is only an internal malady.
> We need a teacher who has succeeded in gaining for himself freedom
to be alone, who does not require any power, who can cure both heart
and Brain. We are in an age in which the meeting of the traditionally
alien cultures of the Orient and the Occident has become inevitable.
We need a teacher with sufficient gift of intellectual imagination and
divine inspiration who can help the smooth working of this meeting,
the working out of this meeting in such a way that the values of each
civilization complement and re-inforce rather than combat and destroy
those of the other. We cannot avoid the sight of conflicting economic,
political, religious, artistic and other ideological doctrines and the
consequent fear and feeling of helplessness, We need a teacher who can
teach us how to get out of the crisis in valuation in this realm of
conflict, who can teach us how to avert the danger of spiritual
paralysis facing us.
> His Holiness Sri Jagatguru Shankaracharya, having gained the
freedom to be alone, did also fully realize the means of escaping from
loneliness. In these days of doubts and difficulties if we can at all
safely turn our eyes for guidance to any one it should be to this
superman the overpowering influence of whose genius appears indeed in
the light of divine inspiration, the superman who has succeeded in
ridding himself of any ambition for power.
> Saintly guidance from a seer like Sri Jagatguru alone can ensure
an abiding peace.'
>
> Controversy and debate seemed to follow philosopher Paul Schilpp
around for most of his life. Throughout his long career at
Northwestern University, and within the field of philosophy in
general, Schilpp sought to provoke thought and encourage discussion.
> Paul Arthur Schilpp was born in Dillenburg, Germany on February 6,
1897. His father, a Methodist minister, moved the family to the
Midwest when Schilpp was 16. In 1913 he enrolled at Baldwin-Wallace
College, Ohio. Although he was still unable to speak English; he
taught himself the language as he attended school. In 1916, he
received his A.B. from Baldwin-Wallace College. In 1918 he became the
minister of Calvary Church in Terre Haute, Indiana. After three years
Schilpp decided to return to school, and in 1922 he received a
Bachelor's of Divinity from Garrett Theological Seminary and an M.A.
in Philosophy and Religion from Northwestern University. He spent one
semester at the University of California, Berkeley in 1924 and audited
courses at the University of Munich in 1928. In 1936 Schilpp received
his Ph.D. from Stanford University for his dissertation entitled "A
Critical Analysis of Kant's Ethical Thought of the Pre-Critical
Period." He received four honorary doctorates
> over the course of his life, from Baldwin-Wallace College,
Springfield College in Massachusetts, Kent State University, and
Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
> Schilpp joined Northwestern University as a lecturer in the
Department of Philosophy in 1936 after being fired from his previous
positions at the College of Puget Sound, WA (1922-23) for religious
radicalism and the College of the Pacific, CA (1923-36) for political,
economic, and social radicalism. He was named Associate Professor in
1936 and became a full professor in 1950. While at Northwestern
Schilpp was appointed to many special lectureships around the United
States and the world. He was invited to teach at the University of
Munich in 1948, the first American professor invited to teach at a
German university since the end of World War II. Schilpp also received
a grant from the Watumuli Foundation to lecture for a year (1950-51)
at over fifteen Indian, Kashmiri, and Ceylonese universities.
> Over the course of his career at Northwestern he was frequently at
the center of controversy. Shortly after Franklin D. Roosevelt's death
Schilpp gave a speech that labeled FDR a Judas Iscariot for leading
the United States into World War II. This declaration caused an outcry
among students, with many calling for the University administration to
formally censure Schilpp. His sometimes rocky relationship with the
University administration during the early part of his career was
reflected in his being the only faculty member not to receive an
automatic pay raise in 1947. In spite of these problems, Schilpp
remained at Northwestern for nearly thirty years, retiring from the
University when he reached its mandatory retirement age of 68. He did
not, however, stop teaching. After leaving Northwestern in 1965 as
Professor Emeritus, he became the Visiting Distinguished Professor of
Philosophy at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, a position
that he held for fifteen years
> until he finally retired for good in 1980.
> Despite a number of important individual texts, including Kant's
Pre-Critical Ethics, Do We Need a New Religion?, The Quest for
Religious Realism, Human Nature and Progress and The Crisis in Science
and Education, Schilpp is best known for founding, editing, and
contributing to the first nineteen volumes of the Library of Living
Philosophers series. The first volume, on John Dewey, was published in
1939. The series includes works covering the work of Bertrand Russell,
George Santayana, G. E. Moore, and Albert Einstein among others. After
his retirement from Southern Illinois University in 1980 Schilpp
stepped down as Editor of the Series, which is still being published
today.
> Schilpp was also active outside of the university setting. He
remained a Methodist minister all his life, even though his viewpoints
on religion differed widely from those of mainstream Methodists. He
was an avowed advocate of world government and of prohibiting the use
and production of nuclear energy and weapons. He was on the Board of
Directors of the ACLU, the National Board of SANE (an anti-nuclear
energy group), and was a member of the Board of Directors of the
United World Federalists.
> Schilpp met his first wife, Louise Gruenholz while he attended
Baldwin-Wallace College. They had four children: Erna, a Northwestern
University graduate; Marjorie; Robert; and Walter. In 1950 he married
his second wife, Madelon Golden (WCAS 1945), a reporter who was a
former student of Schilpp's. They adopted two children: Erich in 1958
and Margot Marlene in 1962. Schilpp died on September 6, 1993, at age
96, of respiratory failure.
>
>
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