Knowing and Acting by Stephen Toulmin (review)

53~ BOOK REVIEWS Knowing and Acting. By STEPHEN TOULMIN. New York: Macmillan, 1976. Pp. 310. In the preface to Knowing and Acting: An Invitation to Philosophy, Stephen Toulmin says he: set out to produce a book that can serve as preparatory background reading about philosophy, and about the philosopher's tasks and interests, of a kind that will serve not just 'Intro Philosophy' students, but also students of the humanities, social sciences and behavioral sciences more generally. Toulmin might have claimed in this same preface to have written a book which could serve as an introduction to his own philosophical work. There are few introductory philosophy texts which call upon so many of their author's own philosophical insights as does this one. For those unacquainted with the work of this post-Wittgenstein philosopher the present text might provide a basic map of Toulmin's own philosophical territory. For those well read in the Toulmin corpus the text could provide some intellectual reminiscing and further insight into the structure of Toulmin's enterprise. As with most living philosophers, Toulmin's work is still evolving. However a basic structure has emerged, and K1Wwing and Acting encapsulates much of it. For this reason, I review Knowing and Acting as an introduction to philosophy and also note those aspects of the text which seem characteristic of Toulmin's work as a whole. Knowing and Acting is divided into four parts. Each indicates an approach to philosophy and then shows some of the intellectual problems consequent upon that approach. Depending on one's view of philosophy one might be tempted to exclude some of the approaches from the domain of " real philosophy " but Toulmin recognizes each and considers each in turn. This recognition is in keeping with his character. Toulmin is not contentious. Although he is often critical, indicating limits and weaknesses to specific positions, he wants to "keep the conversation going." Indeed, one might claim that in the end his work will stand as an act of reconciliation in twentieth-century thought. He has an unusual grasp and " feel " for varied views and he has an equally unusual ability to communicate the sense of these views to others. Part I, titled, " What Are We to Make of Ourselves?" begins with narrations of remembered childhood puzzlements which were philosophical in character. On one occasion while the Toulmins were at the family vacation cottage: I found myself using the front bedroom, which was normally my elder sister's room and had a fine pa.ir of heavy deep-red curtains across the window. Sitting up in the unaccustomed bed. I was intrigued by something about those richly colored curtains. What color were they? What was their color exactly? ... I found to my perplexity that they looked slightly different when I was using my left eye alone ... BOOK REVIEWS 583 This narration leads to a discussion of philosophical questions: What are philosophical questions and how do the questions occasioned by the red curtains relate to traditional philosophical issues? Leaving these reflections, Toulmin notes perplexities about time and number, about personal moods and music and about feelings and authority. All this is done with the ease of a seasoned story teller and one finds oneself recalling one's own childhood and saying: " Yes! I too wondered about that." Yet Toulmin is no mere raconteur. Interwoven with these stories are his reflections on why particular puzzles are philosophical and how they differ from psychological or natural science puzzles which could be occasioned by the same experiences. One senses a naturalness to philosophical thought and sees a place for this in ordinary life. This reflects one of Toulmin's working positions: he does not relegate philosophy to academia and scholarly conferences only, but sees philosophy rising out of ordinary life experience and believes it should strive to remain in touch with the thinking and the experiences of non-professional philosophers. Initiating what will become a pattern in the book, the Third Chapter considers the major difficulty generated by thought about the issues developed in Part I, and is titled, " Fatalism and its Paradoxes." By now the reader is well prepared for the experiential opening, but another of Toulmin's...