4 comments about Thorstein Veblen: Victorian Firebrand.

1. Thorstein Veblen's reputation has not fared well in the hands of his biographers. The worst bio by far ("Thorstein Veblen and his America" written by Joseph Dorfman in 1934) has sat in libraries like so much toxic waste waiting to mislead another scholar.
   Between 1993-95, Veblen's Minnesota childhood home was restored at great trouble and expense. Like most scholars, the restorers started with Dorfman and immediately discovered how full of inaccuracies it was. Then the letters of Andrew Veblen (Thorstein's older and "respectable" brother) were discovered. They were written to protest the distortions of Dorfman's manuscript. They were extremely accurate and eventually would guide virtually every aspect of the restoration.
   
   It was only a matter of time before a new generation of Veblen bios would be written based on the new information. Rick Tilman's "Intellectual Legacy.." was the first, and in many ways the best. But his book was written for serious Veblen scholars.
   The new Jorgensen bio is not at all daunting. It is well-written, well-research and very enjoyable to read. It focuses on the significant women in Thorstein's life--his amazing mother, his charming sister Emily, his quite crazy first wife, and his extremely helpful second wife.
   
   This emphasis would not have been my first choice, but since TBV was the only political economist of his age who would be remotely acceptable to a modern feminist, it was certainly appropriate. In fact, the Jorgensens seem to believe that of all the "heresies" that got Veblen in hot water, his enlightened views on women in society were possibly the most problematic.
   
   Outstanding! Every person who has ever been remotely interested in Veblen should read this book.



2. The authors undertook this project because they believed that a man with such cantankerous ideas must have had an interesting life. Those who had written about him before were earnest in their approach but did not convey an appreciation of his unique personality. Now with the current interest in the millenium, there seems to be a Veblen revival. The WALL STREET JOURNAL of January 11, 1999, devoted a full page to fifteen of the ``Best and Brightest Economic Thinkers Who Made a Difference.'' In this Pantheon of those ``who challenged the conventional wisdom'' and whose perceptions ``changed the way millions thought and lived'' were Saint Thomas Aquinas, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, John Maynard Keynes and Thorstein Veblen. Other recent accolades to Veblen are found in Adam Goprik's article in the April 26-May 3, 1999 issue of THE NEW YORKER, and John Carroll's column ``Conspicuous Presumption'' in THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE of May 3, 1999 Alex Beam of THE BOSTON GLOBE in his colum (April 21, 1999) entitled ``The Love Song of Thorstein Veblen'' had this to say about out book: He observed that he was turned off by books that sort of dragged the sex lifes of their subjects in by the heels, and said: ``Not every distinguished man's sex life is worth researching. . . . But Veblen, the enfant terrible of the turn-of-the century economics profession, enjoyed not just an interesting sex life, as his latest biographers Elizabeth and Henry Jorgensen make clear, he enjoyed his life in full. ``There can be no such thing as a dull biography of Veblen, and this one does not disappoint. ``The man who would later anathematize the titans of capital was a cradle contrarian . . . While Sioux marauders were killing fellow Norwegian homesteaders in Minnesota during the 1860s the boy Thorstein sided with the Indians. . . . [He was also] A-religious--- `If there is a difference between religion and magic I have never seen it.' [Thus] Veblen disdained hsi family's prairie Lutheranism and mocked the pieties of America's golden age. ``He was at heart an anthropologist. THE THEORY OF THE LEISURE CLASS represents field work among the grandees who sent their children to the universities where he taught, and among his censorious in-laws. . . . His trenchant analysis of what came to be called male chauvinism in his essay, `The Barbarian Status of Women,' made him ever more unpopular. Escept perhaps, among women. ``Veblen attracted intelligent women, who shared his contempt for male ritual. Even for the serious-minded Jorgensens, it seems impossible to separate Veblen's life story from his love stories. His first wife, Ellen Rolfe, destroyed his academic career by tattling about her husband's affairs to the presidents of Stanford and the University of Chicago. After trudging all night through a blizzard to visit his second wife [-to-be] in `Nowhere,' Idaho, Veblen contacted double pneumonia, which crippled him for life. ``The Jorgensens correctly note that even his most famous writings seem thick and turgid to the modern taste. But he was the rarest of birds in 20th-century Amderica: a dangerous thinker.''



3. . . . . Stanford alumni Elizabeth and Henry Jorgensen have written a clear, engrossing biography that corrects significant errors in previous accounts, but they can't overcome the central problem, Veblen himself . . . . Veblen returned to Palo Alto in 1927, 18 years after Stanford fired him for supposed "immorality." . . . .the signal achievement of this book (flawed mainly by the Jorgensens' too-brief sketches of Veeblen's thought): demonstrating, once and for all, that Veblen was not an unscrupulous womanizer. Though implausible oin its face, that reputation has gone largely unchallenged for half a century, mostly because Ellen Veblen blackened her husband's name so well.



4. Excerpts from the International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, Vol. 13 #2, Winter, `99: ``Though not entirely successful in depicting the `essential' Veblen . . . .[this new Veblen biography] is essential reading for students and scholars of Veblen. It cannot replace Dorfman's but it deserves equal billing,'' Clare Virginia Eby. ``Flaws and imperfections notwithstanding . . . . their book has entered the sholarly literature on Thorstein Veblen and will henceforth be obligatory reading for anyone wishing to know him,'' Russell H. Bartley and Sylvia Erickson Bartley.

1 comments about On Pascal (Wadsworth Philosophers Series).

1. Anyone with any mathematical background will have undoubtedly heard of Pascal. His contributions to mathematics are well noted. Groothuis, who is exceptionally familiar with the philosophical work of Pascal, has done an admirable job in a short space of introducing the reader to Pascal the man, mathematician, inventor, and philosopher. The first four chapters lay out the historical background needed to understand Pascal and his work. Chapter 5 introduces the Pensees, the fragments of a grand work that was unfortunately left unfinished by Pascal's early death. Chapter 6 describes the rejection, in the Pensees, of arguing for God's existence from natural theology, the accepted apologetic of the day. Groothuis begins the next chapter by explaining Pascal's apologetic in that he "aimed to spark a philosophical and existential crisis in his readers that would be resolvable only by Christian revelation" (50). Groothuis explores two of Pascal's ideas, "deposed royalty" and his controversial "Wager". Groothuis helps those not familiar with or only passingly familiar with these two topics, as well as the Pensees, to better understand Pascal's thinking and intent. Groothuis' extensive work and expertise on Pascal shines through in this work. Anyone interested in being introduced to the genius of Pascal will find the time they spend reading this book to be well rewarded.

No comments about Nelson Goodman (Philosophy Now).

1 comments about Georges Bataille: An Intellectual Biography.

1. This translation of Surya's 1992 biography of the notoriously contradictory French writer contains nearly 500 pages of text supported by 86 pages of notes. It is the first full-length biography in either English or French. Bataille is decidedly an acquired taste, so this book may well persuade you to admire this neo-Sadean thinker who spent his sixty-five years (1897-1962) as an archivist at the Bibliothèque Nationale and then as director of the Orléans Municipal Library. Surya weaves together Bataille's scatophilic and necrophilic obsessions and debauched private life with his literary themes in a way that is not sensationalist or prurient. The author does full justice to his subject's provocative claims concerning the role of consumption in capitalist civilization; the negative features of so-called inner experience; the alleged links between eroticism and death; and the supposed impossibility of community. Indirectly, Surya shows how Bataille's persistent preoccupation with the "informe" (formless) not only illuminates some of the most cutting-edge academic work in art history and literary criticism today, but also eerily foreshadows recent scientific theories of catastrophe, chaos and cosmic evolution. Hasty readers have long inferred a fascist moment in writings like "The Psychological Structure of Fascism" (1933), the first psychoanalytical analysis of its subject, according to Surya (177). To counter this widespread tendency, Surya is particularly good at displaying the development of Bataille's "impossible" thought against the background of French left-wing political activity and thus successfully distances Bataille from any easy embrace of French (or German) fascism.
   Surya's book is not easy to read, however, if you're expecting the straightforward prose of Deirdre Bair's biographies of Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir and Anaïs Nin. Surya's style is that of a sophisticated literary theorist rather than a factual historian. This book is a must if you're already familiar with Bataille's work and wanted to situate it in his life and times. But for a first look, I would turn to Fred Botting and Scott Wilson's introductions to their "The Bataille Reader" (1997) and "Bataille: A Critical Reader" (1997).

1 comments about Wittgenstein.

1. Probably the best commentary I have read on Wittgenstein. Strong focus on the later Wittgenstein of the Philosophical Investigations. This book is not easy reading. Wittgenstein can be tough going and this book will not chew your food for you. Kenny can at times be almost as difficult as his subject, however this book will reward your efforts and expand your understandings.

No comments about On Husserl (Wadsworth Philosophers Series).

1 comments about Alvin Plantinga (Contemporary Philosophy in Focus).

1. One can really deepen their understanding of Plantinga's principles by reading what other comptemporary philosophers have to say about his work.
   I believe Plantinga has broken a lot of new ground, and it is fascinating to see how other leaders in the field are digesting his work. This work also contains Plantinga's notes on his speech regarding "A Dozen or So Arguments for God."
   My highest recommendation. As a non-trained neophyte in the world of philosophy, I found this book very rewarding in putting some context to Plantinga's work. I would not recommend reading this review, however, without first reading Plantinga himself. In particular, I would recommend "Warranted Christian Belief" and "God and Other Minds."
   A number of his essays are also online.

No comments about Memoirs of the Life of Monsieur de Voltaire (Hesperus Classics).

1 comments about A Life for the Spirit : Rudolf Steiner in the Crosscurrents of Our Time (Vista Series, V. 1) (Vista Series).

1. Although I read this book a couple of years ago, it still stands out in my mind as exceptional and outstanding. It is comprehensive in its coverage of Steiner's ideas and work, and for a person approaching the ideas of anthroposophy for the first time, it is the perfect introduction to the man behind it all. I found the book to be much clearer on Steiner than Steiner's own writings. I was nineteen when I read the book so I will recommend that especially young people interested in Steiner get this book. When I finished reading it I was in awe of how much Rudolf Steiner accomplished in his life and the sheer number of fields of knowledge (philosophy, science, medicine, education, art, agriculture, religion) he contributed to. The book is very well written and inspired me to look more deeply into Steiner's philosophy and his work.

No comments about Kwasi Wiredu and Beyond.