Passing of David L. Paulsen

[Scott Lloyd]

Those who knew Brother Paulsen might be interested to hear he passed away peacefully about 13 hours ago. His wife announced it to his Facebook friends. 
 

A philosophy scholar at BYU, he has been a presenter at FairMormon  conferences. 
 

I did not know him well, but I appreciate him for his defense of the faith. 
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_L._Paulsen

 

Edited December 1, 2020 by Scott Lloyd

[juliann]

I really appreciated his work. I first became aware of him at CGU when one of his articles was on a list of paper topics we could undertake. 

[Duncan]

Years ago I wrote a paper in Uni about the Church and Evil and I emailed him with some questions and he graciously helped me out!

[mfbukowski]

9 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said:

Those who knew Brother Paulsen might be interested to hear he passed away peacefully about 13 hours ago. His wife announced it to his Facebook friends. 
 

A philosophy scholar at BYU, he has been a presenter at FairMormon  conferences. 
 

I did not know him well, but I appreciate him for his defense of the faith. 
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_L._Paulsen

 

Every word he ever wrote should be read again and again.  I only met him once, thanks to Bob Smith who is now also missing in action- but it was like shaking hands with the prophet at least for me.

This man's outlook can make the church great again  if we only follow his view of philosophy.   He was a great scholar of William James- and it was essentially the philosophy of William James that allowed me to see the church AS the actual Church of Jesus Christ.  He GOT it!

Without William James, I would still be out there wandering in darkness.

And Paulsen was one of the few who could adeptly explain William James to members of the church not trained in philosophy

Sorry I could only find this on jstor, and it is well worth the effort to sign up on jstor to read this article.   It HAS to be somewhere on some BYU site, and if anyone has a better link, please post it.  Just put yourself in as an independet scholar through BYU and it should work

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25670284?seq=1

 

 

Edited December 1, 2020 by mfbukowski

[rongo]

18 minutes ago, Duncan said:

Years ago I wrote a paper in Uni about the Church and Evil and I emailed him with some questions and he graciously helped me out!

David Paulsen contributed to my joining FAIR back in 2003 (I was a list member until 2011). I had read something from him in FARMS Insights, and wrote him with specific questions about Wesley P. Lloyd. He supplied me with what I needed and then some --- including an unknown tidbit that Lloyd had served as a bishop in a ward meeting in the Manavu Chapel after B.H. Roberts (his mission president) died in 1933. What a small world! The singles ward I was in when I got married (my wife went to UVSC, and was in a different ward) had dances and activities there, and it was literally around the corner from my apartment. http://ldspioneerarchitecture.blogspot.com/2014/07/manavu-ward-chapel.html  After that experience, I decided to join the FAIR list, which was also mentioned in an issue of Insights.

David came from a generation that graciously answered letters and helped the questioner how he could, without pawning it off on a subordinate (or ignoring it). A very good man! 

[Ahab]

I move that we designate a day as Philosophy day, in honor of David L. Paulsen and philosophy in general, and then think no more about philosophy on every other day of the year.  Or at least not as much on most other days.

[InCognitus]

48 minutes ago, mfbukowski said:

Every word he ever wrote should be read again and again. 

I agree completely.  I still replay his speech, Joseph Smith and the Problem of Evil every once in a while when I'm driving between Utah and Arizona, just because it is so good and I enjoy it so much (I have it in my "Greatest Hits" audio file folder in my car's USB drive).  

[Calm]

His class was one of the highlights of my years at BYU. 

[mfbukowski]

6 hours ago, Calm said:

His class was one of the highlights of my years at BYU. 

Grrr.  I'm jealous.  I actually drove across country 6 times between San Diego and NYC to take classes in my grad program in philosophy- at City University of NY because that is where John McDermott https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_J._McDermott_(philosopher) was, who at the time was a practicing Catholic and one of the leading James scholars nationally.

He was the key to helping me understand that real live contemporary philosophy which everybody thought was totally atheistic had giant loop holes in its premises through which one could drive a .....  Hmmm, how does one create a metaphor referring to a Christian 18 wheeler trailer truck? 

And once I understood that reality IS experience- even religious experience- became as legitimate a topic as experiences we have which are verifiable through science.  Just different language games

And then I started looking for a church that could actually accommodate these ideas.

BYU?  Those Utah hicks?......   West of the Hudson River?   I mean it wasn't even UCLA......  and Salt Lake City vs New York??

oops..........   😜

 

Edited December 2, 2020 by mfbukowski

[mfbukowski]

7 hours ago, Ahab said:

I move that we designate a day as Philosophy day, in honor of David L. Paulsen and philosophy in general, and then think no more about philosophy on every other day of the year.  Or at least not as much on most other days.

So no scriptures or conference talks, or religious writings at all?

Nah, I'll take a pass on that one.  Without philosophy I would have just been one of those uh...... uninformed atheists you see everywhere who think religion has something to do with ontology or don't understand that every statement they make on every subject is their "philosophy" without even knowing it.

Oops....  I used a big word.

Edited December 2, 2020 by mfbukowski

[Ahab]

On 12/1/2020 at 6:09 PM, mfbukowski said:

So no scriptures or conference talks, or religious writings at all?

Nah, I'll take a pass on that one.  Without philosophy I would have just been one of those uh...... uninformed atheists you see everywhere who think religion has something to do with ontology or don't understand that every statement they make on every subject is their "philosophy" without even knowing it.

Oops....  I used a big word.

Okay.  I'll compromise a bit with you and concede that it is sometimes okay to mingle philosophy with scripture.  The fact that Satan said there are many who mingle philosophy with scripture doesn't necessarily mean that is a bad thing, I suppose.

Next time we talk maybe we can discuss exactly how much we can safely mingle philosophy with scripture.

[mfbukowski]

26 minutes ago, Ahab said:

Okay.  I'll compromise a bit with you and concede that it is sometimes okay to mingle philosophy with scripture.  The fact that Satan said there are many who mingle philosophy with scripture doesn't necessarily mean that is a bad thing, I suppose.

Next time we talk maybe we can discuss exactly how much we can safely mingle philosophy with scripture.

I hope you realize that everything we say is philosophy, but I don't think you do.

Whether or not it is coherent is another question.  To achieve that, it has to be consistent and logical.

[Ahab]

1 minute ago, mfbukowski said:

I hope you realize that everything we say is philosophy, but I don't think you do.

Whether or not it is coherent is another question.  To achieve that, it has to be consistent and logical.

Oh, so you're using that definition of philosophy.  Kind of like how everything is all about religion, or politics, too.  I suppose there is some truth to that concept but I do not buy everything people say or refer to as philosophy or religion or politics.

And I suppose you don't buy it all, either.  Just whatever you want to believe.

[Teancum]

On 12/1/2020 at 4:08 AM, Scott Lloyd said:

Those who knew Brother Paulsen might be interested to hear he passed away peacefully about 13 hours ago. His wife announced it to his Facebook friends. 
 

A philosophy scholar at BYU, he has been a presenter at FairMormon  conferences. 
 

I did not know him well, but I appreciate him for his defense of the faith. 
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_L._Paulsen

 

We all die but I am sad for his family and for us.  I found what I read by him very stimulating and thoughtful.