Questioning Basic Assumptions
This short segment is the "Love of Wisdom with Alan Watts" series introduction to a lecture titled "Symbols and Meaning," recorded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in April 1973. A narrator opens with a capsule biography, placing Watts among the era's most eloquent interpreters of Eastern thought to Western audiences, noting his seminars aboard his ferryboat the Vallejo in Sausalito, his university keynote addresses, and his books on Christian theology, psychology, ecology, and Eastern religion including "The Way of Zen." The narrator frames the talk's premise: every speaker of every language carries basic assumptions beneath the surface of that language, assumptions that usually go unexamined, and Watts intends to compare Eastern and Western languages to expose the faulty ones hiding inside what people call common sense. Watts then takes over and warns his audience they are in for a "head trip," theoretical groundwork he says is necessary before anything else can follow. He argues that ideas are as powerful as emotions in shaping human life, that psychoanalysis has examined the emotional roots of belief but neglected the intellectual roots of psychological theories and therapies themselves, and that everyone's unexamined linguistic assumptions exert enormous influence over their lives. As his first example he introduces the common sense notion, inherited from Aristotle and reinforced by the Bible, that the physical world divides into the two aspects of form and matter, a claim he is just beginning to unpack when this excerpt ends.
transcriptmachine-transcribed, unedited
Welcome to the Love of Wisdom with Alan Watts.
As one of the century's most eloquent philosophers,
Alan Watts introduced a generation in the West
to the fascinating ideas of the Far East,
the wisdoms of the Orient.
In the 1960s and early 70s,
he lectured throughout the English-speaking world
and was recorded in a variety of settings,
from seminars aboard his ferry boat, the Vallejo,
in Sausalito, California,
to keynote addresses at major universities.
The author of books on Christian theology,
psychology, ecology, and Eastern religion,
including his classic "The Way of Zen,"
Watts' scholarship is deep and timeless.
However, it is also his wit and playful approach to life
that endears him to us today.
Originally recorded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
in April 1973,
this program is called "Symbols and Meaning."
In this talk, Alan Watts points out that
anyone in any culture who speaks a language
has underneath the surface of the language
certain basic assumptions that are usually unexamined.
By comparing and contrasting Eastern and Western languages,
Watts uncovers some of the faulty assumptions
beneath the surface of what we call "common sense."
On the other hand, reality is like musical expression.
It means exactly what it says.
If you ask Bach, "What is the meaning of music?"
he would have said, "Listen, that is the meaning."
Here's Alan Watts.
Tonight, at any rate, we've got to go through
some theoretical material, so we're on a head trip.
I don't know where the trip will end up.
It depends on you.
But in order to lay the foundation for this,
we've got to examine ideas that are basic to our common sense.
Ideas are very powerful.
It's not only emotions that are powerful in human life.
Psychoanalysis has, of course, examined
the emotional bases of human opinions and beliefs,
but one should also examine the intellectual bases
of psychological principles, or theories, or therapies.
Because everybody who speaks a language at all
has underneath the surface of the language,
or the figuring that he uses,
certain basic assumptions which are usually unexamined.
And these unexamined systems of belief
are extremely powerful in their influence over our lives.
We'll begin with one very common idea
that's built into our common sense,
which is that the world, the physical world,
consists of two aspects, respectively form and matter.
This was foisted on us by Aristotle,
and also by the Bible, because it is said...
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