Hardy Henry, Hardy on Polanowska-Sygulska on Hardy on Berlin on Pluralism and Religion

„The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments”. These are William James’s words in the first of his lectures on pragmatism, delivered in 1906 . Many others have made similar observations.

When I read Professor Beata Polanowska-Sygulska’s review of my book about wor-king with Isaiah Berlin and challenging his ideas , it seemed to me to exemplify the truth enunciated by James. Polanowska-Sygulska is by nature or upbringing, or both, a religious believer, and I am an anticlerical infidel, rebelling against the religious indoctrination of his youth. We bring these pre-existing conditions to the main issue that divides us – the tenability of religious belief by a pluralist – and they, as much as, if not more than, the arguments we deploy, determine the positions we adopt. The fact that she is a Polish cradle Catholic and I a lapsed English Anglican may also be relevant to this bifurcation. Nevertheless, we are good friends (to declare an...