Tibor Machan on C-Span


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Shew, 3 hours, that thing was long. A kind of highlight, or at least something particularly worth pointing out to OLers, came between 5 and 10 minutes before the end. There’s a caller who, if he’s not James Valliant himself (voice print ID needed), is one very silly ringer for PARC.

Tibor has lost much of his accent since I last heard him speak many years ago.

I met Machan at a conference 7-8 years ago and he sounds the same to me. Kind of a gruff voice, with no particular accent to my ear. Not a foreign one anyway.

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Last time I attended a lecture by Tibor (TAS/Free Minds 2010 summer seminar, 10 months ago),

he still had a Hungarian accent.

I have fpund it rather curious that, considering his impressive output (at least 30-40 books, innumerable essays, and columns) on topics of interest to all libertarians, and especially Objectivists, that there is so little discussion of his works.

He is, by the way, an Objectivist, not a "neo"-Objectivist (ARIan protests not withstanding).

I have many of his books and I have found very little (well, actually, nothing) that is not in agreement with Objectivist philosophical positions as stated by Rand and Branden.

GHS, thanks for calling this link to our attention.

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Shew, 3 hours, that thing was long. A kind of highlight, or at least something particularly worth pointing out to OLers, came between 5 and 10 minutes before the end. There’s a caller who, if he’s not James Valliant himself (voice print ID needed), is one very silly ringer for PARC.

Tibor has lost much of his accent since I last heard him speak many years ago.

I met Machan at a conference 7-8 years ago and he sounds the same to me. Kind of a gruff voice, with no particular accent to my ear. Not a foreign one anyway.

I just finished watching the last half of the interview. I think Tibor does an excellent job throughout. I found his comments about teaching, writing, and tenure especially interesting.

I haven't had any contact with Tibor since the early 1980s. I used to see him at various parties and conferences in Southern California. We debated the minarchist/anarchist controversy at an LP convention c. 1980. I was not scheduled to participate in the debate. I had a book table set up, and I was approached about 30 minutes prior to the event and asked if I would fill in for the guy who was originally scheduled but who wasn't able to make it. This didn't give me much prep time, to say the least, but I think the debate went pretty well. I can't say I remember much about it, however.

I also published a lengthy and favorable review of Tibor's book "Human Rights and Human Liberties" in Reason Magazine. This was in a special "Book Issue" of Reason and must have been published in 1975 or 1976. Unfortunately, the Reason archives for this period are very spotty, and that issue is not available online. I don't know why the people at Reason don't make all of the early issues available online. Perhaps they don't want current subscribers to know how much the early Reason differed from the current version.

Ghs

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He is, by the way, an Objectivist, not a "neo"-Objectivist (ARIan protests not withstanding).

I have many of his books and I have found very little (well, actually, nothing) that is not in agreement with Objectivist philosophical positions as stated by Rand and Branden.

This may be true, but Tibor has always been more ecumenical in his philosophical tastes than the typical O'ist philosopher.

If you look at the text that appears during the halftime break, you will see that J.L. Austin is listed as one of Tibor's favorite philosophers. I share Tibor's enthusiasm -- indeed, I quoted Austin several times in ATCAG (in the discussion of contextualism) -- but we don't normally find O'ist philosophers singing the praises of "ordinary language philosophers." I even recall Tibor citing Wittgenstein favorably on occasion, though I don't recall where.

I was interested to find Stephen Toulmin's The Uses of Argument listed as one of Tibor's favorite books. I have sung Toulmin's praises several times on OL, especially in regard to his magnum opus, Human Understanding: The Collective Use and Evolution of Concepts. I wasn't as familiar with The Uses of Argument, but I happened to read it around six months ago, and it is excellent as well. Generally speaking, what we find in both of these books by Toulmin in an emphasis and exposition of what Randians would call "contextualism." (I recall that Toulmin actually uses the word "contextual" in regard to knowledge in Human Understanding.)

Ghs

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The last I heard Tibor was posting on Rebirth of Reason. Joe Rowlands seems to be protecting him from the friction of any antagonistic give and take, which Tibor cannot stand. If you are interested, go to the home page and click on "members" and scroll down to Tibor. Clicking on that you should be able to then click on a list of his postings.

--Brant

going to check--

--click on "Macham," not "Tibor" or use the right column and scroll down to #114--quicker--and you have to click on "people" first, instead of "members" and after "members" you may have to click on "members" again in the next screen

Edited by Brant Gaede
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Last time I attended a lecture by Tibor (TAS/Free Minds 2010 summer seminar, 10 months ago),

he still had a Hungarian accent.

I’ve been to Budapest and had conversations with Hungarians there, eager to practice to speaking English, and my notion of a Hungarian accent doesn’t match up with Machan’s. But this is Ted’s area.

The last I heard Tibor was posting on Rebirth of Reason.

He has his own blog.

http://szatyor2693.wordpress.com/

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Last time I attended a lecture by Tibor (TAS/Free Minds 2010 summer seminar, 10 months ago),

he still had a Hungarian accent.

I’ve been to Budapest and had conversations with Hungarians there, eager to practice to speaking English, and my notion of a Hungarian accent doesn’t match up with Machan’s. But this is Ted’s area.

The last I heard Tibor was posting on Rebirth of Reason.

He has his own blog.

http://szatyor2693.wordpress.com/

Well, if it's not a Hungarian accent, then what is it? Maybe he developed or refined his original Hungarian accent a la the methods used by Yul Brynner or Leopold Stokoski. If we had Shaw's "Phonetics Professor, Henry Higgins" (Pygmalion, and the adapted musical, My Fair Lady), he might be able to clarify the issue. However, in Machan's case, I think we are dealing with the genuine article.

He is, after all, a refugee from Hungary, who escaped from that country after the Russian suppression of that nation's uprising in the mid-nineteen fifties (see Tibor's own account in his published memoir, The Man Without A Hobby: Adventures of a Gregarious Egoist [2004, Hamilton Books/University Press of America, available from Amazon.com or univpress.com]).

Edited by Jerry Biggers
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Well, if it's not a Hungarian accent, then what is it?

Like I said, no particular accent at all. Somewhere in the 3 hour program I think he talked about working to get rid of his accent. To me, he sounds like New England but with an occasional hint of a southern twang slipping in there.

Speaking of Henry Higgins, it seems anyone can be accused of sounding Hungarian:

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Don't think less of Tibor just because GHS likes him. rolleyes.gif

I've seen his ups and downs (Tibor's, I mean--George's are more obvious) but you can't fault the man for being kind hearted, and also working his tail off. Those are two things you don't see operating together very often.

rde

I just heard GHS bought the Batmobile from that guy that just bought the Batmobile.

Edited by Rich Engle
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I just heard GHS bought the Batmobile from that guy that just bought the Batmobile.

What on earth are you talking about? Not that I always know what you're talking about, but in this case it seems to be in a code worthy of the Zodiac killer.

zodiac_killer.gif

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I just heard GHS bought the Batmobile from that guy that just bought the Batmobile.

What on earth are you talking about? Not that I always know what you're talking about, but in this case it seems to be in a code worthy of the Zodiac killer.

zodiac_killer.gif

I'm just saying. But reports are always sketchy. I also heard that he has been hired on to write the next Trailer Park Boys movie.

rde

It's hard to follow the Great Ones.

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