Comments on: “The Empty Universe,” by C.S. Lewis

By: Chuck

Chuck — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:47:17 +0000

I find I experience what Lewis describes when reading his work.

By: GeraldPetrie

GeraldPetrie — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 12:13:55 +0000

Sartre advocate violence, even terrorism. This is made most clear in his extended preface to The Wretched of The Earth, by Fanon.

You will have to read it to believe it.

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:30:34 +0000

Have you read “An Experiment in Criticism”? In addition to lots of other lovely stuff about reading, Lewis also says something similar there: “A true lover of literature should be in one way like an honest examiner, who is prepared to give the highest marks to the telling, felicitous and well-documented exposition of views he dissents from or even abominates. I read Lucretius and Dante at a time when (by and large) I agreed with Lucretius. I have read them since I came (by and large) to agree with Dante. I cannot find that this has much altered my experience, or at all altered my evaluation, of either.”

Also related: in his introduction to a book on St. Athanasius, Lewis wrote: “firsthand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than secondhand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire.”

I agree with you that the experience of reading a book that allows you to breath “a new air” is rare, and with Lewis that it is far more likely to come from a primary source, from one of the greats such as Lucretius and Dante as opposed to “inferior exponents of the system.” On the other hand, I also find that non-experts (e.g. Eric Hoffer) or people writing books that aren’t theory but that nonetheless impart an approach to or “philosophy of” life (e.g. Richard Feynman’s autobiographies) have deeply affected me.

I think the idea of philosophies having the qualities of works of art was quite important to Lewis professionally as well as spiritually. For instance he seemed to truly relish the medieval view of the universe as beautiful in itself even though it wasn’t true (like in his book the Discarded Image). That is wonderful for a literary person, but what do you think of it as a philosopher? When it comes to philosohpies, can philosophers care about qualities other than truth?

By: Joshua Blanchard

Joshua Blanchard — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:57:53 +0000

Clarification: I was the one being cute, with paraphrases.

By: Julian

Julian — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:18:05 +0000

Joshua: “I don’t think you’ve explained. You’ve taken defensive stances beginning with a coy “I don’t understand,” continuing with “Nazis” and flat denials of the point (e.g. that you can have subjective meaning in a world without objective meaning), and ending with “I haven’t read any existentialists” and “existentialists should believe in God instead.” Those are just cute paraphrases. Anyway I tried again back at that post.”

No, I wasn’t being coy. I didn’t understand. Since you had yet to make a distinction between objective meaning and subjective meaning, there was nothing for me to deny. I thought I began with “I haven’t read any existentialists.” And given my failure to realize the distinction between objective and subjective meaning, if such a distinction is legitimate, my conclusion that honest exitentialists should be believe in God follows. So no, I wasn’t being “cute.”