Abstract

Iknow that some people find that Leavis’s mode of thought and what he had to say about thinking are obscure or difficult. We are dealing with some profound matters, but some profundities can be elucidated as well in twenty minutes as twenty years. I think the subject can be treated briefly and lucidly, and the challenge to me is to do so.What counts as thinking? What does it cover? Narrow the question immediately to thinking about, so as to avoid tricky questions concerning, for instance, prophecy, dreams, or the Delphic Oracle, and it may still include “Let’s sleep on it” or even my way of preparing these remarks, which was to try to define...