{"id":3907,"date":"2019-03-16T05:50:01","date_gmt":"2019-03-16T05:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2019\/03\/16\/the-seductive-sophistry-of-alan-watts\/"},"modified":"2019-03-16T05:50:01","modified_gmt":"2019-03-16T05:50:01","slug":"the-seductive-sophistry-of-alan-watts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2019\/03\/16\/the-seductive-sophistry-of-alan-watts\/","title":{"rendered":"The Seductive Sophistry of Alan Watts"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Alan<\/a>Here<\/a>. (An entertaining video clip, not too long, that sums up his main doctrine.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Alan Watts was a significant contributor to the Zeitgeist<\/em> of the 1960s.  Just as many in those days were 'turned on' to philosophy by Ayn Rand, others such as myself were pushed toward philosophy by, among other things,  Alan Watts and his writings.  But early on I realized that there was much of the pied piper and sophist about him.  He once aptly described himself as a "philosophical entertainer" as opposed to an academic philosopher.  Entertaining he was indeed.<\/span><\/p>\n

I heard him speak on 17 January 1973 in the last year of his life .  He appeared to be well into his cups that evening, though in control.  Alcohol may have been a major contributor to his early death at age 58 on 16 November 1973. (See Wikipedia)  What follows is a journal entry of mine written 18 January 1973.<\/span><\/p>\n

………………..<\/span><\/p>\n

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I attended a lecture by Alan Watts last night at El Camino Junior College. Extremely provocative and entertaining.  A good comparing and contrasting of Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Hindu and Chinese views. <\/span><\/p>\n

At random:  One must give up the desire to be secure, the desire to control.  Ego as totally illusory entity which is really nothing but a composite of one's image of oneself and certain muscular tensions which arise with attempts to achieve, grasp, and hold on.  The self as opposed to the ego is God, God who forgot who he was.  The world (cosmos) as God's dream.  Thus the self-same Godhead reposes in each individual.  There is no spiritual individuality.  And therefore, it seems, no possibility of personal relations. <\/span><\/p>\n

Consider the I-Thou relation.  It presupposes two distinct but relatable entities.  If there is only one homogeneous substance, how can there be relation?  But perhaps I'm misinterpreting the Wattsian-Hindu view by thinking of the Hindu deity as substance rather than as function, process.  Watts himself denies the existence of substance.  Last night he made the well-known point  as to the linguistic origin of the notion of substance.  [This is of course not a "well-known point."]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Denial of the ego — i.e. its relegation to the sphere of illusion — would seem to go hand in hand with denial of substance.  [Good point, young man!]<\/span> Watts seems very close to a pseudo-scientific metaphysics.  He posits a continuum of vibrations  with the frequency of the vibrations  determining tangible, physical qualities.  Yet he also says that "We will always find smaller particles"; that "We're doing it"; that the fundamental reality science supposedly  uncovers is a mental, a theoretical, construct.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thus, simultaneously, a reliance on a scientific pseudo-metaphysics AND the discrediting of the scientific view of reality.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Here. (An entertaining video clip, not too long, that sums up his main doctrine.) Alan Watts was a significant contributor to the Zeitgeist of the 1960s.  Just as many in those days were 'turned on' to philosophy by Ayn Rand, others such as myself were pushed toward philosophy by, among other things,  Alan Watts … Continue reading “The Seductive Sophistry of Alan Watts”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[171,92,146],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asian-philosophy-and-pseudophilosophy","category-autobiographical","category-sixties"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3907\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}