Alan Watts

Alan Wilson Watts (January 6, 1915 – November 16, 1973) was a philosopher, writer, speaker, and expert in comparative religion. He wrote over twenty-five books and numerous articles on subjects such as personal identity, the true nature of reality, consciousness and the pursuit of happiness, relating his experience to scientific knowledge and to the teachings of Eastern and Western religions or philosophies (Zen Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Hinduism). Beyond this, he was sensitive to certain new leanings in the West, and was in a position to be a proponent for certain shifts in attitudes regarding society, the natural world, lifestyles, and aesthetics. Alan Watts was a well-known autodidact. He was most renowned as an interpreter of Asian philosophies.

Philosophy summarized

Alan Watts was a popular post-modern philosophical writer. His writing reflects the bounds of the culture and psychology he had inherited in Britain. Despite the intellectual opportunities he knew had been afforded by the schools he had attended in childhood, he felt the general cultural influence (particularly the religious ideas) had been restrictive and repressive. He wrote that he believed Judeo-Christian culture had developed through the centuries in a way that had not fully accepted human nature, and therefore often stifled people and set them at odds with nature, rather than effectively teaching them to discipline themselves.

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Watts had a lifelong interest in things like (parapsychology, mysticism, thaumaturgy, and the lives of saints) and he saw himself as a good thinker and public speaker. He was convinced that a human being is an expression of God and that life is simply a marvelous game which is based on what he called: 'the hide and seek' and 'now you see it now you don't'. While known as a popularizer who made great spiritual insights much more accessible to the common man, Watts' work has also been criticized as being a too-shallow expression of the philosophies he espoused when compared to the insights available from traditional teachers of those disciplines.

Related Topics:
Parapsychology - Mysticism - Thaumaturgy

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Alan Watts' philosophy was informed by the lifeways of Asia, intended to be shared with those people whom modern life had afforded some leisure time they might devote to contemplation, self-development, sensuality, enjoyment of nature, and fun. He was aware of his own inordinate proclivities and follies. Yet Watts was a man who felt that there was no reason that life shouldn't be lived with gusto. He loved good food, good literature, fine wines and tobaccos, beautiful scenery and women. His mature philosophy reflects these facts. Though he personally knew many brilliant individuals, he directed most of his writings to the growing number of reasonably intelligent and moderately educated people of his era.

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