Broad on "Practical" Philosophy

From "War thoughts in peace time", a lecture delivered in 1931 and reprinted in Broad's Religion, Philosophy and Psychic Research (Routledge, 1953). Also available here.

"... if there is any practical return which a professional philosopher can make to the community which pays him so handsomely for doing such pleasant work in such agreeable surroundings, it is surely that of clearing up confused ideas and pointing out specious fallacies."

Broad on Ward on Naturalism

From p.37 of "The Local Historical Background of Contemporary Cambridge Philosophy", in C. A. Mace (ed.) (1957) British Philosophy in the Mid-Century (London: G. Allen and Unwin) pp. 13-61, describing James Ward's naturalism:

"Ward takes naturalism to be the attempts at philosophic synthesis made by persons who regard the methods of natural science as the only available ways of getting knowledge about matters of fact, and who treat the concepts used by scientists and the laws discovered by them as exact and literal transcriptions of purely objective facts."

On the relation between Philosophy and Economics

From p.15-16 of "The Local Historical Background of Contemporary Cambridge Philosophy", in C. A. Mace (ed.) (1957) British Philosophy in the Mid-Century (London: G. Allen and Unwin) pp. 13-61.

"It was doubtless inevitable that economics, when it grew up to be a huge and highly complex subject, should leave the home of its childhood and set up house for itself. I do not know whether this separation from moral science has been harmful to Cambridge economics, but I am inclined to think that it may have been unfortunate in certain respects for Cambridge philosophy. It is noteworthy that since those days philosophy in Cambridge has been almost completely out of touch with general history, with political theory and sociology, and with jurisprudence. This has no doubt saved it from many temptations to vague and pretentious verbiage, and from the danger of philosophizing with one eye on contemporary politics. But it has involved the complete neglect of much that is a proper subject for philosophic analysis and speculation, and which has in fact always formed an important part of philosophy in other places and in Cambridge itself at other times."

On philosophy as a disease

from p.102 of "Philosophy" Inquiry 1:1-4 (1958) 99-129

"An influential contemporary school, with many very able adherents in England and the U.S.A., would reduce philosophy to the modest task of attempting to cure the occupational diseases of philosophers. In their writings the word 'philosopher' is commonly used to denote the holder of some opinion, or more accurately the utterer of some sentence in the indicative mood, which, the writer regards as characteristically fatuous. If this is what one thinks about one's own occupation, it is certainly honest to announce the fact. It is not for me to judge whether it is altogether prudent for professional philosophers thus publicly to proclaim that their business is to take in and wash each other's dirty linen. Nor will I speculate on how long an impoverished community, such as contemporary England, will continue to pay salaries to individuals whose only function, on their own showing, is to treat a disease which they catch from each other and impart to their pupils."

Broad's "System"

From p.77 of "Critical and Speculative Philosophy" in J. H. Muirhead (ed.) (1924) Contemporary British Philosophy: Personal Statements (London: G. Allen and Unwin) pp.77-100. (Available here)

"I have nothing worth calling a system of philosophy of my own, and there is no other philosopher of whom I should be willing to reckon myself a faithful follower. If this be a defect I see no likelihood of its ever being cured. Secondly, if I had a system of my own, I should doubt the propriety of "pushing" my crude philosophical wares in competition with the excellent products of older firms with well-earned reputations."

On science and philosophy...

From p.96 of "Critical and Speculative Philosophy", in J. H. Muirhead (ed.) (1924) Contemporary British Philosophy: Personal Statements, (London: G. Allen and Unwin) pp. 77-100.

"We are all familiar with the nonsense which eminent philosophers have talked about scientific questions; it is only equalled by the nonsense which eminent scientists continually talk about philosophical questions."

An explanation of this blog's name.

At the end of his 1959 essay "A Reply to My Critics", in in Paul A. Schilpp (ed.) The Philosophy of C. D. Broad (New York: Tudor Publishing Company) pp. 711-830, C.D. Broad writes:

"... though philosophies are never refuted, they rapidly go out of fashion, and the kind of philosophy which I have practised has become antiquated without having yet acquired the interest of a collector's piece."

I don't know if that was true when Broad wrote it in 1956, but it's not true now. At least, I find these pieces interesting enough to collect; as the placement of the apostrophe suggests, I hope that others will too.