Worlds Apart [Paperback]

Owen Barfield (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1597311103 | ISBN-13: 978-1597311106 | Publication Date: October 30, 2006

"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, Guilt and Habit.

Product Details

• Paperback: 212 pages
• Publisher: The Barfield Press (October 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597311103
• ISBN-13: 978-1597311106
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,010,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still a rarely traveled road, January 12, 2003

By 

Daniel J. Smitherman "phenomenologist" (Missoula, MT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Worlds Apart (Paperback)

Long ago Owen Barfield perceived a disconnect between science and meaning - as early as the 1920's - and argued that the gulf between them was only getting wider and deeper by the 1960's. In Worlds Apart, he attempted to make explicit the presuppositions of the science of the day, discuss whether or not those presuppositions made sense, and what the implications were in either case.

Worlds Apart is a dialogue between two physicists, a biologist, a psychiatrist, a theologian, a teacher, a philosopher, and a lawyer. The conversation takes place over three days, and is set in the 1960's. The pace of the dialogue is brisk, the subject matter is fascinating, and many of the threads of thought and their conclusions are still, in 2003, refreshing and profound.

One such presupposition that gets quite a working over is this: the world is ultimately real only on the level of particles, or atoms. Anything not explainable in terms of particles is a subjective "experience" or appearance. Trees "appear" as trees because of the activity of our human minds. Other humans "appear" as humans because of the activity of our minds.

But if only particles *really* exist, and if all the appearances only arise in human minds, then why do we talk about the history of the earth, before humans were around, in terms of appearances - like trees and dinosaurs (which are only appearances)? Or, why do we talk about remote solar systems or galaxies in terms of appearances - warmth or coldness, brightness or darkness, etc.?

Even with Barfield's unmistakable English writing style, and *because* of his philosophical bent, Worlds Apart is a refreshing and disturbing read, one that is likely to take you out into very deep water, far, far from any shore you recognize.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The human mind at its sharpest, October 26, 2008

By 

A. J. M. Groot "K. Nijsen" (Amssterdam, Netherlands) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Worlds Apart (Paperback)

I subscribe to everything the previous reviewer wrote, and wish to add that besides the often far-reaching philosphical insights proposed in these debates, this book is also a perfect showcase for Owen Barfield's tremendously sharp and comprehensible mind. It will be appreciated by anyone who enjoys reasoning in the best Platonic tradition. As such, I think it is the best, most accessible introduction to Barfield's philosophy. It may, finally, also well be read simply as a novel, with well worked-out characters, for Barfield's purposes, and an ending that is one to remember.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent, November 23, 2009

By 

myriad eyes (Nashville, TN USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Worlds Apart (Paperback)

This was my introduction to Barfield, and while I enjoyed the book immensely, bringing up countless questions I will enjoy pursuing further, if you are looking for the satisfaction found in a Platonic dialogue, where all confusion is cleared away by tight dialogue and terse definitions, this may not be the one for you. Because the characters' "time is limited" and the conversations cover so many subjects, the reading tends to be rather discursive, leaving loose ends untied. Clearly this was the author's intention, but it wasn't what I expected. It often requires the reader to either carry the logic on out past the conversation to draw a conclusion, or refrain from doing so altogether. Of course his attempt to discuss these subjects objectively completely makes up for it!

5 stars for blowing my mind and getting me excited to give a go at Saving the Appearances. "Very deep water" indeed..