Stanford has its own Click and Clack—and they’re hoping for air time.
“Philosophy Talk”—their proposed radio program—is “kind of like [National Public Radio’s] ‘Car Talk,’ except philosophy’s simpler,” says Professor John Perry.
“And more culturally relevant,” says Ken Taylor, his philosophy department colleague and aspiring co-host.
Perry: “Besides, who cares about automatic transmissions?”
Taylor: “Cars just pollute our culture. Whereas philosophy can enliven it.”
Perry: “And we’ll have some controversial topics: Is death really bad? Does tenure make sense?”
Taylor: “We want to enliven and entertain. We think philosophical discourse is a great way of thinking. Most people’s idea of debate is horrible things on TV like Crossfire, where people shout at each other and their arguments are mostly ad hominem . . .”
Perry: “. . . and stupid.”
Taylor: “And stupid. And we think there’s a populace out there who would like serious discussion. So I’m the straight man, and he’s the funny one. I’m also the intense, passionate, cool one.”
Perry: “Ken could be funny on TV, but on radio . . . I just don’t know.”
And so it goes deep in the recesses of Building 90, home to a department known nationally for its strength in the philosophy of language, mind, science, action and logic and the history of 18th- and 19th-century philosophy.
“We’re also known as the department that took the ‘anal’ out of ‘analytical,’” Perry suggests.
“He doesn’t mean it,” Taylor cautions. “Do you, John?”
“You’re right. We put the ‘func’ back in ‘dysfunctional.’”
But then Perry’s been here longer—since 1974—and Taylor has been learning his lines only since 1995. As chair, Taylor has overseen a remarkable rebuilding of the department. Because of several failed tenure cases, retirements, departures of senior faculty and the death of professor Wilbur Knorr in 1997, the philosophy department by 1998 was suffering from what Taylor calls “seriously depleted ranks.” The remaining faculty went on retreat that year and determined to recruit the best senior philosophers they could find. During winter 1999, they made several successful offers.
“In Michael Friedman and Allen Wood, we have two of the greatest Kant scholars in the English-speaking world,” Taylor says. “It’s also the case,” Perry adds, “that every generation has its Socrates figure—somebody who everyone knows is a wonderful philosopher, but who publishes very little—and this generation’s Socrates has settled here and teaches for us: David Hills.”
With the department replenished, faculty members are pursuing research with enthusiasm. Perry and Taylor have been contemplating the problems of their specialty, the philosophy of language and mind.
“Philosophy of language is concerned a lot with ‘How possibly . . . ?’ questions,” Taylor says. “How possibly do we make these noises or inscriptions that tell us things about how the world is or was? How do these noises achieve the power they have, and how do they give us windows into one another’s mind—telling us, for example, that John believes that Aristotle suffered from hives?”
“I think it’s pretty obvious, judging from the Greek syntax of his lesser-known writings,” Perry responds. “But Ken and I both feel that philosophy of language is magic—it’s a fairly controversial theory, but we’re developing it. And we also think there are really small people who sit on top of the words and tell us what to say.”
The unrehearsed routines are a hint of what could air on “Philosophy Talk”—the title not only of their hoped-for radio show but also of a continuing-studies course that will debut this spring. The pilot program Perry and Taylor have sent to a Bay Area producer features conversations with well-known contemporary philosophers as well as man-on-the-street interviews in downtown Palo Alto.
“Of course, we’d really like the show to debut on [student station] KZSU, but I can never find the studio,” Perry says. “I follow directions carefully, but I keep ending up in a men’s room in Memorial Auditorium.”
