October 26, 2001
Dear Norman
I think there are several factors that determine which degree of
philosophical bloodthirst is legitimate.
- Talking to a colleague is different from talking to a student.
Confronting students with faults in their work is essential for their
progress. If they plan to make a job out of philosophy, it is essential
that they learn to withstand reasoned critique (and how to integrate it into
their own work). Depending on what kind of student I am confronted with,
a certain frankness can be helpful in this process. A colleague is not
somebody I have to help along in philosophy. So I bear no responsibility
for his intellectual progress. Between the person giving a talk and the
discussants there is a symmetrical relation. The incivility you talked
about is concerned with such a situation. If Prof. B. had met Mr. Imlay
in the classroom, his behaviour would still have been inappropriate but
we would interpret it against a different background. His refusal to
engage in dialogue would still be out of place. But the attitude of saying, "I
tell you now what you should have said", is possibily a legitimate way of
teaching someone who was completely misled how to do it better. But it
is an attitude that must be restricted to the classroom, because the
only excuse to be that rude is that it helps in the end to reach the goal
in the course. But there is no such responsibility on the occasion of a
public lecture.
- You emphasize that the importance of finding fault with the work of
others is overestimated in philosophy. I am not quite sure about that
because analyzing the premisses of what other people do helps me to
integrate their work into my own perspective on a certain problem. So
finding fault is an important heuristic tool – as long as it is
complemented by a different perspective, namely the attempt to find out
what might be true in a certain text.
- I wholeheartedly agree with what you have to say on an essentially
feminine perspective concerning the behaviour of 'bad boy philosophers'
in philosophical exchanges. The trouble is that for someone not as
bloodthirsty as the rest of the herd, it is a no-win-situation. Either
he/she keeps quiet and opts out at some point – or he/she tries to assert
him/herself and thus adopts an attitude alien to his/her original
outlook. So it is the task of teachers to let everyone come to his/her own view.
Best regards
Stefan Heßbrüggen
Stefan Heßbrüggen-Walter
Hamburger Str. 44
D-48155 Münster
Phone: 0049-251-666128
Mail: waltest@uni-muenster.de
|