The Rediscovery of Meaning and Other Essays

by Owen Barfield

"Owen Barfield has unusual ideas about human nature and reality.. Now this seasoned British thinker.offers a collection of [essays] that reflects the entire range of his interests, including the philosophy of science, physics, biology, psychology, metaphysics, aesthetics, literature, linguistics, and religion.. He is a prophet of the New Consciousness who has been around a long time; and he may well be the most comprehensive and critically incisive of them all." -The Kirkus Reviews

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Essays, Christianity, Literature, Linguistics

312 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1977

About the author

Arthur Owen Barfield was a British philosopher, author, poet, and critic.

Barfield was born in London. He was educated at Highgate School and Wadham College, Oxford and in 1920 received a first class degree in English language and literature. After finishing his B. Litt., which became his third book Poetic Diction, he was a dedicated poet and author for over ten years. After 1934 his profession was as a solicitor in London, from which he retired in 1959 aged 60. Thereafter he had many guest appointments as Visiting Professor in North America. Barfield published numerous essays, books, and articles. His primary focus was on what he called the "evolution of consciousness," which is an idea which occurs frequently in his writings. He is best known as a founding father of Anthroposophy in the English speaking world.

Barfield has been known as "the first and last Inkling". He had a profound influence on C. S. Lewis, and through his books The Silver Trumpet and Poetic Diction (dedicated to C.S. Lewis), an appreciable effect on J. R. R. Tolkien. Lewis was a good friend of Barfield since 1919, and termed Barfield "the best and wisest of my unofficial teachers". That Barfield did not consider philosophy merely intellectually is illustrated by a well-known interchange that took place between Lewis and Barfield. Lewis one day made the mistake of referring to philosophy as "a subject." "It wasn't a subject to Plato," said Barfield, "It was a way." Lewis refers to Barfield as the "Second Friend" in Surprised by Joy:

But the Second Friend is the man who disagrees with you about everything. He is not so much the alter ego as the antiself. Of course he shares your interests; otherwise he would not become your friend at all. But he has approached them all at a different angle. He has read all the right books but has got the wrong thing out of every one. It is as if he spoke your language but mispronounced it. How can he be so nearly right and yet, invariably, just not right?

Barfield and C. S. Lewis met in 1919 and were close friends for 44 years. Barfield was instrumental in converting Lewis to theism during the early period of their friendship which they affectionately called 'The Great War'. Maud also guided Lewis. As well as being friend and teacher to Lewis, Barfield was his legal adviser and trustee. Lewis dedicated his 1936 book Allegory of Love to Barfield. Lewis wrote his 1949 book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for Lucy Barfield and he dedicated The Voyage of the Dawn Treader to Geoffrey in 1952.

Reviews

[Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Agreeing to read Owen Barfield is like agreeing to toss your brain in a deep-fryer. Your brain will be all crispy by the end and you'll need to blot it with a paper towel before you can do anything else, but the contents will be **tasty** and better than ever.

When it comes to the Inklings, if you like a focus on the philosophy of myth, go to Tolkien. If you want an understanding of how to use myth to strip Christianity down to its bare bones, go to Lewis. If you want a mediation on how our relationships with our fellow man can be used to connect us to God, go to Williams.

If you want to understand the unsaid assumptions inherent in all of the above, go to Barfield.

Upon first glance, Barfield seems to be the outlier among the Inklings, even though Williams is the least known. The other three were teachers, literary critics, professors in mythology. Barfield was a solicitor whose passion for mythology was a side effect of his passion for the meaning of words, a passion that no doubt served him well in his legal career. The Rediscovery of Meaning is a collection of Barfield's that does its best to articulate Barfield's philosophy of meaning. While it definitely gives me the impression that Barfield was probably that crusty old guy yelling at the kids to stay off his lawn, it also made it very clear that Barfield knew exactly what he was talking about.

Reading through his essays, it becomes incredibly clear just how whip-smart Barfield is. The essays themselves tackle difficult topics and use examples from history, science, music, ethics, and linguistics, but Barfield does a good job at slowing down to explain. It doesn't make the subject matter any easier to understand, mind you--no one could make this stuff simple--but one gets the clear picture that the grueling explanations are not a result of Barfield being pretentious, but that Barfield is doing his best to explain a topic to an audience that he doesn't think is an idiot.

(Jokes on him. My siblings would be the FIRST to tell him that my IQ resembles my shoe size).

If you are genuinely interested in philosophy, assumptions in non-modernist lit, or the Inklings as a whole, this should be something you mosey around to reading. If you want your brain intact or dense essays aren't your thing....I would encourage you to expand your horizons, but maybe build up to this one.

[J.A.A. Purves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here is yet another of Barfield's books that will rock your world and leave you gasping for an entire collection of false and questionable assumptions that you have just witnessed being eviscerated by Barfield's ineluctable chains of reasoning. Another advantage here is that his thoughts, as complex and erudite as they are, come in small contemplative pieces (since this is an essay collection). Each essay sort of fits into place like a puzzle piece. But as each essay keeps knocking over modern assumptions about how we live and think, and then as another essay starts dealing out death blows to overblown falsehoods, you will start being forced to rethink some things that you may have never even considered as in question.

A great book, and perhaps even a great introduction, to an intimidating array of lively ideas about art, language, meaning, truth, criticism, epistemology, reality and metaphysics. Enjoy it.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

On page 190 the mechanomorphic depiction of the universe and human being was overthrown for me. Granted, I had issues with it in the first place. I acknowledged the glaring, defensive walls of Darwinian orthodoxy as holding many verifiable truths... but then Barfield showed that, while we do not have to tear them down, they are actually gates, or, better yet, just one more lovely room in a many-coloured palace. I've rarely encountered a human mind more capable of keeping the baby and the bathwater.

To say it was a revelation is a bit of an understatement. I should have known that any diligent student of Rudolf Steiner would be able to make sense of these things.

[Dan Toft · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned such incredible lessons about the nature of creative language from this book, especially from "The Meaning of Literal" and "Poetic Diction and Legal Fiction." "The Harp and the Camera" chapter is perhaps my favorite essay of all by Owen Barfield, and I have quite a few favorites, so that's saying quite a bit.

[Ben McFarland · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first find a new author that really excites me, I usually have a moment of Fall, in which I realize that this new author isn't really "all that." It's my first substantial disagreement with him or her. Maybe with Marilynne Robinson it was a few political comments in her recent book (reviewed above). With J.R.R. Tolkien for most readers it happens about 1/4 of the way through the Silmarillion -- maybe not disagreement, but just not getting it. For Neil Gaiman with C.S. Lewis it was probably the incident of Susan at the door in The Last Battle. Let it be known that I personally think the first of these three examples is the corrent reaction and the other two are misguided (then again, I would, wouldn't I?). Still, there's a moment of disenchantment that follows enchantment, and I knew it was coming with Owen Barfield, kind of like you know that there will be a big fight coming at some point after you get married. The only question is how soon.

As you can guess, I encountered that moment with Owen Barfield and it did take me three books to get there. If Barfield and I have to fight it would be over Rudolf Steiner. ("Rudolf, Rudolf, Rudolf! It's always about RUDOLF with you, isn't it?!") Barfield simply takes too much of his philosophy from this Steiner guy, and the way he talks about him -- not his "writings" but his "findings" no less -- well, I'm kind of glad that I disagree because it gives me a chance to assert my own individuality. There seems to be so much else that Barfield gets right but I am not convinced about Steiner. Which leads to some unconvincing passages about reincarnation as well. (But I've got to remind myself, as much as I disagree, I'm disagreeing with Plato as well, and I do believe the self can survive death -- I'm just a one-time-only kind of guy for many reasons, including sheer economy.)

The bottom line is, it's nice to know I'm not just blindly a Barfield disciple now, and really, the 90% of this book that I don't have a bone to pick with is excellent. I have a few forthcoming blog posts inspired by different topics, which should show that I still find his writing vividly inspirational, and I do feel like the parts of Barfield's philosohy I do want to retain are much stronger now. Looking forward to keeping on reading, even about Steiner, maybe there's something worthwhile there but I'm currently skeptical.

Lest anybody think I'm taking this in uncritcally, I'm not. Definitely, if you're reading Barfield, start elsewhere (or maybe just with the first essay, which gives its title to the collection and justly so, because it is a nice capsule of Barfieldisms). There's a rough dividing line around 1970, in which the stuff published earlier is 95% good and the stuff published later is about 66% good, so maybe it can be chalked up to the attention given him after he retired from law and the increased rate of publication. Still, 66% good is pretty good. I dream of 66% ...

[Michael Fitzpatrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Owen Barfield's collection of essays is pretty incredible. He has insights into common issues that are very unique, and I found myself wondering often how he even came up with some of his ideas. It's a great volume for anyone interested in the objective/subjective problem, language, literature, philosophy, or the evolution of consciousness. His ideas are extremely unorthodox, but rewarding to an open mind.

[Wes Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first look into the world of Owen Barfield. I was following a recommendation from C. S. Lewis to read Barfield's book Poetic Diction, but as I could not find that title at my local library, I went with this collection of essays instead. It did not disappoint! The topics range widely, so there is too much to tackle here. I will mention a few things: 1) Barfield is a logic master, which is probably why he made a good litigator. I appreciate greatly how his logic permeates all of his writing. One might not always agree with his conclusions (I don't think I always do), but it would be hard to criticize his logic and presentation. 2) The English teacher in me was enthralled by his talk on words: what they mean, where they come from, and how they are, all of them, charged with easily overlooked figurative underpinnings (even that word "underpinning," for example, is metaphorical; I see that now, because I read Barfield.......Actually, I don't "see that" at all, not literally. That phrase is an eyeball metaphor. What I really mean is I "understand" it....no, wait, "standing under" is metaphorical too. Rats!). 3) Can I just say that the essay entitled "The Coming Trauma of Materialism" (included in this volume) might be one of the most important pieces of thought I've encountered in the last ten years. And I don't even say I agree with everything in the essay (the Steiner business, for example, gives me pause--just as Barfield predicted it would). Anyway, I agree with a great deal, am cautious about some, and probably don't understand parts, but I followed it enough to love it and know that it is important. His argument is, in short, that the scientific method, as we know it today, deserves some fundamental rethinking. You'll just have to read the essay for yourself to get more. I highly, highly, highly recommend it.

[Hugo Skoppek]

Probably the most remarkable book I have read in a long while. Although the essays were written more than 50 years ago, Barfield challenged my thinking like no other writer. On the one hand he makes us aware of the poor foundations of our modern understanding of 'reality', yet at the same time he shows a path towards a more comprehensive understanding of the world which goes beyond mere materialist understanding.
If you think, that you know how the world functions, Barfield may throw you for a loop. If you doubt your current worldview and seek some answers, Barfield has some solid ground to offer on which to walk.

[Alan Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found it uneven, though the best outweighed the lesser insights or mere speculations. Always worth reading, but at the same time, there's a reason his thinking is someone off to the side in academic circles. A more detailed review would require a more thorough engagement with the book than I am ever likely to undertake. That time would be better spent on other thinkers, Paul Ricoeur, Rene Girard... Still his enthusiasm for Rudolf Steiner might lead me to look that man up.

[Brady · Rating 5 out of 5]

A founding member of the Inklings (of fame through members Tolkien, Lewis, and Chesterton) and student-follower of anthroposophy and Rudolf Steiner, Barfield aims in these essays to explain the genesis of problems such as meaninglessness, materialism, and logical positivism pervasive in the early twentieth century. The last few essays take a very Christian turn, though the rest are concerned with philosophical, philological, and rhetorical issues. Barfield highlights the greatest shift in consciousness of the last millennium - the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century - and, through philology (historical linguistics), exposes the ineffective nature of the mechanistic worldview which grew out of the philosophy of that era. This book, at its core, is a diagnosis and a descriptive cure for the contemporary (wo)man.

[Isaiah]

A collection of deeper discussions of his previous master piece, Poetic Diction. Worth exploring to expand the landscape Poetic Diction leads to.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

15 Sep-15 Nov 2009. Enjoyed most of these essays. Would like to revisit this with my own copy someday.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really good writing, but some less good. And some more still just over my head in its nuance.