from
C. D. Broad
(1887-1971)
"Broad is the clearest-headed of philosophers." Brand Blanshard
| Philosophical Alternatives from C. D. Broad | (1887-1971) |
| Works by C. D. Broad | |
| Philosophical Autobiography | |
| Principal Works on C. D. Broad | |
| Introduction by Andrew Chrucky | |
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". . . I have an extreme dislike for vague, confused, and oracular writing; and I have very little patience with authors who express themselves in this style. I believe that what can be said at all can be said simply and clearly in any civilized language or in a suitable system of symbols, and that verbal obscurity is almost always a sign of mental confusion." C. D. Broad, "Critical and Speculative Philosophy," in Contemporary British Philosophy: Personal
Statements (First Series), ed. J. H. Muirhead (London: G. Allen
and Unwin, 1924). "Broad is the clearest-headed of philosophers." Brand Blanshard | |
| "Philosophical fashion has not been kind to Broad, and indeed his historical importance is evidently less than that of Russell, Moore or Wittgenstein. Even so, I think that his work is under-rated. . . . Where he excelled was in drawing up a brief. The subject is discussed from every angle, the various possibilities judiciously set out, the precedents cited, the fallacious arguments exposed: nothing is skimped: looking for reason, we are not fobbed off with rhetoric: there is never a hint of "something far more deeply interfused". This is perhaps his weakness, that he does not burrow under the surface, but only few can do this with profit, and it is much to have the surface properly scrubbed." (A. J. Ayer, Part of my life (London, 1977), pp. 117-8) | |
