Worlds Apart

Posted on by Owen Barfield
Worlds Apart In the great English tradition of the lay specialist Barfield a lawyer modernizes the Platonic dialogue format to focus on the philosophic problems of reality and ways of knowing This is the solven

In the great English tradition of the lay specialist, Barfield, a lawyer, modernizes the Platonic dialogue format to focus on the philosophic problems of reality and ways of knowing This is the solvent mind at its best distinguished exchanges giving provocative, open ended results at every point Highly recommended of permanent value Choice Books for College Librar In the great English tradition of the lay specialist, Barfield, a lawyer, modernizes the Platonic dialogue format to focus on the philosophic problems of reality and ways of knowing This is the solvent mind at its best distinguished exchanges giving provocative, open ended results at every point Highly recommended of permanent value Choice Books for College Libraries Owen Barfield, who died in 1997 shortly after entering his hundredth year, was one of the seminal minds of the twentieth century, of whom C S Lewis wrote he towers above us all His books have won respect from many writers other than Lewis, among them T S Eliot, J R R Tolkein, and Saul Bellows, and John Lukacs He was born in North London in 1898 and received his B.A with first class honors from Wadham College, Oxford, in 1921 He also earned B.C.L M.A and B.Litt degrees from Oxford and was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature He served as a solicitor for twenty eight years until his retirement from legal practice in 1959 Barfield was a visiting professor at Brandeis and Drew Universities, Hamilton College, the University of Missouri at Columbia, UCLA, SUNY Stony Brook, and the University of British Columbia, Vancouver His books include seven others published by The Barfield Press Romanticism Comes of Age, Worlds Apart A Dialogue of the 1960s, Unancestral Voice, Speaker s Meaning, What Coleridge Thought, The Rediscovery of Meaning, and History

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Worlds Apart

  1. Arthur Owen Barfield was a British philosopher, author, poet, and critic.Barfield was born in London He was educated at Highgate School and Wadham College, Oxford and in 1920 received a first class degree in English language and literature After finishing his B Litt which became his third book Poetic Diction, he was a dedicated poet and author for over ten years After 1934 his profession was as a solicitor in London, from which he retired in 1959 aged 60 Thereafter he had many guest appointments as Visiting Professor in North America Barfield published numerous essays, books, and articles His primary focus was on what he called the evolution of consciousness, which is an idea which occurs frequently in his writings He is best known as a founding father of Anthroposophy in the English speaking world.Barfield has been known as the first and last Inkling He had a profound influence on C S Lewis, and through his books The Silver Trumpet and Poetic Diction dedicated to C.S Lewis , an appreciable effect on J R R Tolkien Lewis was a good friend of Barfield since 1919, and termed Barfield the best and wisest of my unofficial teachers That Barfield did not consider philosophy merely intellectually is illustrated by a well known interchange that took place between Lewis and Barfield Lewis one day made the mistake of referring to philosophy as a subject It wasn t a subject to Plato, said Barfield, It was a way Lewis refers to Barfield as the Second Friend in Surprised by Joy But the Second Friend is the man who disagrees with you about everything He is not so much the alter ego as the antiself Of course he shares your interests otherwise he would not become your friend at all But he has approached them all at a different angle He has read all the right books but has got the wrong thing out of every one It is as if he spoke your language but mispronounced it How can he be so nearly right and yet, invariably, just not right Barfield and C S Lewis met in 1919 and were close friends for 44 years Barfield was instrumental in converting Lewis to theism during the early period of their friendship which they affectionately called The Great War Maud also guided Lewis As well as being friend and teacher to Lewis, Barfield was his legal adviser and trustee Lewis dedicated his 1936 book Allegory of Love to Barfield Lewis wrote his 1949 book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for Lucy Barfield and he dedicated The Voyage of the Dawn Treader to Geoffrey in 1952.

634 Reply to “Worlds Apart”

  1. A relatively deep read, which for me took mental effort, but in a good way.P 67, We are no longer capable of thinking deeply, because we think too quickly.

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  2. I just finished this one and I m still digesting it The reviews that I read before I myself read the book stated that this fictional account is the best way to absorb the sometimes nebulous and abstract thought system of Barfield Having read it, I agree that it is easier to understand on the first read than, say, Saving the Appearances was, but the fictional give and take aspects of the book do not dumb down nor simplify Anthroposophy There were still moments of frustration and self doubt on my [...]

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  3. I read Plato s Dialogues when I was 14, and enjoyed them This was hard Barfield thinks in some very sideways kinds of ways, and I really enjoyed working at keeping up with him His angle of view on the scientific revolution was well worth the effort, and there s some other gems besides.

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  4. This is my second time to read the book The first time was a rushed skim to see what it was about It warrants a careful rereading.Barfield was a solid writer and thought deeply Most of us are going to be struck with how that man with those analytic and imaginative skills, education, atheistic upbringing a free thinking household that ridiculed religion , social influences meaning C.S Lewis and other University students and faculty , and nearly 70 years to think about it believed a set of, what w [...]

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  5. The Owen Barfield reading tour continues with Worlds Apart, written by Barfield as a dialogue between several academics with different philosophies Two are clearly anthroposophists like Barfield, and the rest represent different disciplines ranging from physics to psychology I m trying to decide if this book is a good entry point to Barfield or not It does focus on science and the back and forth of the many objections to Barfield s ideas The dialogue format of Worlds Apart plays to Barfield s ex [...]

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  6. Owen Barfield s philosophical works were highly regarded by such a diverse collection of authors as Saul Bellow, T.S Eliot, C.S Lewis and John Lukacs And, while it is perhaps one of his accessible books, there is much in Worlds Apart to suggest just why these authors found Barfield worth pondering.I took the first half of the book very slowly, reading and rereading small chunks over the course of a couple weeks, getting used to the ideas and to Barfield s style of discourse in terms of form, th [...]

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