Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion of Walker Percy

["Karey Perkins" <karey AT charter.net>]

Well, if we could figure out what he is, perhaps he is something totally new and different and I could finally narrow down my dissertation topic...(!)

 

KP

 

PS:  I agree "language" is integral to his philosophy...this relates to what a colleague of mine is working on, the idea of "image" (or symbol...something transcendent and meaningful -- which for Percy language is a key mediator) vs. "icon" (cliché, or just the idea of a physical sign, the one for one equation that he says semioticists like to believe in, but that language really is not).  I'm reading "Naming and Being" right now, in which he says that language relates to our "ontology."

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: James Piat [mailto:piat1 AT bellsouth.net]
Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 8:01 AM
To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion
Subject: [percy-l] Re: Conscious Will

Karey Perkins wrote:

 

But, what I didn't pick up until I started on his non-fiction (which is slower going than the fiction, I'm still on "Signposts in a Strange Land" and haven't made it to the others yet), is that he is also NOT a dualist!  Of course it's obvious after the fact (Love in the Ruins and Tom More's lapsometer measuring the physical/spiritual split; the "San Andreas fault"...).  This also relates to our immanence/transcendence discussion -- what Percy's saying is he's not a dualist.

 

So what is he?

 

---------

 

Dear Karey,

 

Enjoyed your post!  I don't know what Percy is or considered himself philosophically.  A Christian of course  --perhaps a Christian existentialist of the Peircean pragmaticist variety.  I think he may have seen language as in some way mediating the dualism of mind and body. Thanks for the fun and illuminating comments.

 

Jim Piat

 

I wonder about the relationship between religion and philosophy.  They both address some of the same questions.  Is it mostly a matter of faith vs. reason? Faith were reason fails?

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