1 comments about On Rorty (Wadsworth Philosophers Series).

1. The first thing one wants to know when reading this book is who the typesetter and the proofreader were. With at least two egregious typos per page, one gets the impression that one of them must have not been a native English speaker and the other must have doubled as a sportscaster in his freetime.
   
   Once you've gone through this book, pen in hand, adding omitted letters and apostrophes and striking the maddeningly inconsistent double spacing after each period, you'll find a fine example of C-grade scholarship. It's about what you'd expect an above-average undergraduate senior to turn in as his final thesis. It gives an occasionally clear and lucid explanation of Rorty and the context in which he is writing. More often, though, Rumana seems quite simply confused. If Rumana is, in fact, an undergraduate, he can be quite proud of his philosophical ability. As it is, he's probably not, and (...)(at least for me), this book is a scam.

1 comments about The Selected Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

1. This book somewhat gives a different view of what Emerson was like away from being the literature giant that he is...if that sounds interesting to you then you should get this book.

1 comments about Unended Quest: An Intellectual Autobiography.

1. Karl Popper is yet another exceptional student of the Austrial school that produced a plethora of scientists, mathematicians, philosophers and economists at the turn of the century. The only other comparison would be the extraordinary number of scientists from tiny Scotland that almost single-handedly began the Industrial Revolution. Popper and friends were Renaissance men, masterful in numerous subjects, at ease in a laboratory, classroom or lecture hall.

   They were rationalists of a specific kind. Not for them, the ramblings of a street preacher, social "activist" or leader of mass movements. Instead their actions were didactic, in the cause of something greater. Popper served as gadfly, professor, mathematician, scientist, philosopher and could be considered a spokesman for the groups. His life in Europe was remarkable for what was accomplished - oh, to have a such an inquiring, multi-faceted mind!!

   This book is perhaps more approachable that some of his others. The title says it all; it is the story of the evolution of an intellect that seemed to retain its core. He was interested in so many things and so many areas that all his works are to some degrees syntheses of his interests. Whether he is admiring the logic of scientific discovery or the illogic of taxes, he is brillant, informative and endearing. The intellectual battles are here for all to see (and choose sides). He emerges with not only his mind but his soul intact.

No comments about The Many Faces of Philosophy: Reflections from Plato to Arendt.

No comments about On Gurdjieff (Wadsworth Philosophers).

2 comments about On Freud (Wadsworth Philosophers Series).

1. I'm not sure why this book is included in Wadsworth Philosopher's Series. From the editor's description: "ON FREUD is written by a philosopher deeply versed in the philosophy of this key thinker". I can't find any evidence that Trupp is such a philosopher.

   He takes the sloppiness of Freud and updates it for the early 21th century; but without Freud's poetic force and depth of detail. Instead we get high-school descriptions of lasers, neurotransmitters and numerology - or at least, facile patternphilia ("The skyscrapers of Manhattan are pure mathematics. Also music. And time. The number and length of the ladybug bear an infinitesimially exact mathematical relation to its polka carapace as does the angle and size of its six knees to its six ankles." - These are all given as pure fact, even though self-contradictory).

   It is as if scientific theories over the last 75 years have been specifically mined to find the slightest snippets of correspondance - metaphor, homophony, vague quotes - where they bear any relation to something in Freud (Trupp's wordplay with sign/sine, co-sign/cosine seems to instigate a meaningless foray into Fourier analysis a few pages later). Sometimes he even goes back in time to find a correspondance (witness Wikan's book called The Duality of Mind - which Trupp calls prescient but never actually illuminates) only to point out that Freud would not have had access to this information. What kind of research is this?

   There are about 25 pages in the beginning middle which are useful: Trupp delivers a quick description of Freud's psychological models. But none of these examined philosophically.

   I have liked most of the books I've been exposed to in this series (On Heidegger, On Descartes, On Spinoza, On Quine, On Dennett) but this one is even poorly edited and organized, I'm afraid. There is a bizarre use of quotes all over the place - as if the author suffers from the primary process mentation he attributes to children and dreams - "words seem to equal 'things'".

   I was looking for a philosophy book, one that would delineate the principles of Freudianism, describe the philosophy thus implied, criticize of both, and provide the tehory's buttressing against the criticism if need be. But I got a fawning, near freakish - dare I say, doped up? - diatribe instead.

   I am considering getting my money back from Amazon, and ordering the Cambridge Companion to Freud, or Foundations of Psychoanalysis by Grunbaum, instead.




2. The person who wrote the previous review pretty much got it right. I am very dissapointed by the superficial understanding of Freud related in this volume. The Wadsworth title "On Marx" is the only other book in the series I have been exposed to and seemed quite helpful. "On Freud" however, looked more like either a freshman psychology term paper or a junior high text book.

3 comments about Ludwig Von Mises: The Man and His Economics (Library of Modern Thinkers).

1. by Joseph R. Stromberg-- Israel Kirznerýs Ludwig von Mises is a welcome addition to the literature on Mises and economics. It is a very useful book, not only for the academic reader unfamiliar with Misesýs work but also for the intelligent layman. What is quite startling is just how much the author manages to accomplish within the compass of a fairly short work (220 pages).

   Kirzner announces at the outset that he intends to tell "the story of Mises in his role of economist" (p. ix). His aim is to expound the "subtlety and depth of Misesian economics" while clarifying issues he thinks many readers of Mises have failed to grasp. Furthermore, Kirzner makes the case that Mises was the greatest free-market economist of the twentieth century.

   The book begins with a thorough summary of Misesýs life (1881-1973) and of his achievements. It covers his education in Vienna in the shadow of the German Historical School and his break with that outlook after becoming acquainted with the opposed views of the Austrian School through reading and talking with Carl Menger (p. 3). Mises attended Böhm-Bawerkýs seminar and began publishing technical papers in economics. His first important work, The Theory of Money and Credit, came out in 1912, breaking new ground and extending the Austrian paradigm.

   Kirzner introduces the years following World War I, during which time Mises advised the Austrian Chambers of Commerce, helping to avert runaway inflation in Austria; conducted his famous seminar; and published many important books and papers. The Nazi Anschluss drove Mises into exile in Switzerland, but in 1940, he came to the United States and later became a citizen. His masterwork, Human Action, was published in English in 1949, the same year that he began his famous New York seminar. That seminar continued into 1969.

   Following the biographical sketch of Mises, Kirzner drops back to set Misesýs work in the broader context of early twentieth-century economic thought. Kirzner gives thumbnail sketches of the competing schoolsýGerman Historical, Marshallian, and Walrasian. This setting allows him to zero in on what was new and revolutionary in Misesýs writings. According to the author, Misesýs first great accomplishment was to integrate money and monetary theory into general Austrian economics, grounded on insights about marginal utility, subjective value, and acting human beings. Kirzner shows how and why Mises did this and how this led to his breakthrough into the Austrian theory of business cycles.

   The author continues with a discussion of Misesian economics as a system self-consciously built upon rigorous, if unpopular, epistemological foundations. Kirzner contends that Mises shored up these foundations "because he came to be convinced that the vitally important lessons which economics can teach are likely to be dismissed on methodological grounds by those representing special interests" (p. 69). Mises believed that the rise of economic theory was, in itself, revolutionary in that it undercut earlier moralistic and power-political approaches to the study of human societies.

   Kirzner proceeds in a straight line to an excellent summation of the Austrian systemýs architectonic structure. Apparent detours turn out to be necessary background to Misesýs views and shed more light on them by giving an account of competing ideas and traditions. There is a generous evenhandedness in the way in which Kirzner sorts out differences and agreements between Mises and Hayek. The lucid presentation of difficult concepts make this a useful book even for those who already know a great deal about the subjects covered.




2. ISI Books has just come out with a series called Library of Modern Thinkers, which will contain summaries of the thought of important (for lack of a better term) conservative and libertarian thinkers - kind of like an Oxford University Press "Past Masters." According to the jacket, current and forthcoming titles will cover Nisbet, Ropke, Oakeshott, de Jouvenal, Lytle. Francis G. Wilson and Will Herberg (in other words, thinkers that wouldn't be included in a series that contains volumes on such worthies as Foucault and Derrida).

   If Prof. Kirzner's work on von Mises is representative, then this series will be an important contribution to the publishing world. Prof. Kirzner received his doctorate in economics in 1957 under von Mises and has written a number of important studies. This book is well organized and informative. It starts out with a chapter on von Mises' life, a chapter on his role in economics, and chapters on specific facets of his economic thought. It concludes with an overview of von Mises as the 20th century's preeminent free-market thinker.

   As a layman in economics, I learned a lot about von Mises the man and economist. For example, there is a discussion on methodological differences between Hayek and von Mises, a discussion of the pioneering nature of much of his monetary thought, and how his thought differs from neoclassical economics. I found particularly insightful Prof. Kirzner's comment that Human Action isn't simply a compendium of Austrian thinking, but is truly a brilliant extension of Austrian thought to a vast swath of economic and sociological issues.

   I have one big problem with the book. It is over 200 pages long, but it is double-spaced! In fact, there are no block quotes. Another quibble: according to the jacket, Friedman and Becker are "exponents" of the Austrian School.




3. This is a good overview of Mises, his life and background and his economics. It is workmanlike, basic and easy to read. It is not spectacular but it is very solid.

   I did enjoy reading it, however. The first two chapters give alot of background information on von Mises's life and work and I found that interesting because it is always nice to know a bit about an author as a person rather than just his work. And the bottom line about von Mises is that he was a couragous, honest and brilliant man and the proof is in the tremendous admiration earned by worthy friends and supporters.

   The Third chapter takes up von Mises's ideas on methodology, his a priorism and his commitment to value free economics. The two page section "The Intellectually Revolutionary Character of Economics" is really good. Section 5 of the chapter, "Mises' Methodological Defense" didn't really help me understand Mises's case for a priorism as opposed to empiricism, but I already know that from "Human Action" (huan events are complex and variables can't be held constant so it is always possible to come up with different plausible explanations for happenings; you can never isolate specific causes and their effects because it is not clear what is causing what). Section 6 "Mises and the A Priori: The Extremist?" explains what Hayek thought was a critique of Mises and Kirzner shows how it wasn't but I couldn't follow him. The one page section "Mises and the A Priori: Not So Extreme!" was appreciated because it gives alot more plausibility to Mises's claims about economics having to proceed a priori; I like the idea of economic logic but I think empirical studies and just common sense observation have got to play a role in economics, though I need to think about this more.

   Chapter Four was pretty familiar but "The Entreprenurial Character of the Misesian Market Process" was welcome because it just emphasized for me how central the entreprenuer is to Mises's conception of how the market works.

   I skipped Chapter Five on monetary theory, the business cycle and interest rates but it looks pretty good.

   Chapter Six tries to address how Mises reconciled his idea of value free economics with his passionate arguments for capitalism and against socialism and interventionism. Socialism can't work and interventionism produces consequences the intervenionists didn't want and eventually leads to socialism (which doesn't work ;) I accept the arguments by Ayn Rand on the foundations and standard of ethics and so I can argue rationally for capitalism but I don't know that von Mises can.

   In the end, I think that one has to read von Mises himself to get an appreciation of just how deep and comprehensive his grasp of human action and economics is. But this book does provide a little context and a useful overview. Maybe I was expecting too much; after all, how are you going to do justice to one of the greatest thinkers of all time in 200, double spaced pages? Can't be done.
   
   

5 comments about Pythagoras: The Mathemagician.

1. While reading this book, my surprise and delight went increasing. My surprise first, for discovering Pythagoras represented much more than his well known theorem as he also was a philosopher, a great traveller through space, time, spirits and dimensions. The author Karim, like Pythagoras a seeker of harmony, provided me with great delight as sweet thoughts wandered in my imagination when his book made me dive back into ancient civilisations and traditions described so precisely and so charming, in a state where these two worlds of reality and mysticism brush against each other often and mix with each other sometimes. A great thank to the author and to his thorough and complete research and work in its description of what was Pythagoras life.



2. In Pythagoras: The Mathemagician, Karim El-Kousa has written a delightful story about a great philosopher. But he has also managed to convey vibrant details of a great civilization that I am most proud to be one of its descendents: The Phoenicians. Having lived the first twenty one years of my life in the great Phoenician city of Byblos and being the grandson of a Saydounian family makes this story really personal.



3. The first question I ask myself when I face a book on Pythagoras: "did the Author subjectively limit Pythagoras to a particular specialization like math, music or philosophy? In this book on Pythagoras, the author has succeeded to present Pythagoras as a "polymath"... breaking the bonds of subjectivity to reach a global view... In this context, the familiar image that often presented the "scientific" and the "spiritual", the "tangible" and the "subtle" as diametrically opposed, is replaced with a view that unites both in the oneness of knowledge and the Love of Wisdom - the ultimate Philo-Sophia.
   Someone attached to numbers, like the Pythagoreans, would have felt comfort if they read page 7 which elucidates the "spiritual royal purple color" - the 7th ray... Even if we neglect the page numbers and count the pages from the beginning of the book up to the special number 33, we will find ourselves in front of the famous quote graved on the plate above the entrance...: "Man, know thyself...", and the author did not hesitate to proceed at the end of the same page with "... you will know the secrets of the universe and the gods"
   WATCH OUT! The book may grab you by the thought and leads you to the "Pytha-Goras" concealed deep in each of us... You start reading a book on history and philosophy and you end up - somehow - I do not know how - hearing the music of the spheres...



4. When I first heard about the book, I didn't give it much attention. Of course I was excused, because in my opinion, the author's previous book titled "blooming planes" was a disaster. It is true that Karim's debut with "Reflecting Unitas" was excellent, but it was very depressing with the second one.
   
   Anyway, the author is a friend of mine, and I had to buy the book just to see what's inside. But when I started reading, I was kind of amazed because this book was very different from both its predecessors.
   
   Storyline:
   The storyline is well built. The life of Pythagoras is astoundingly described based on historical facts. No doubt Karim has made lots of research and interpreted tons of history books before writing this book. The events are accurately placed in the chronological timeline. Furthermore, the story is of an exploratory nature in a way that the reader is always yearning to read more.
   
   Style:
   The writing style is firm even though it is written in simple English, no complicated expressions, just simple and clear with good descriptions and dialogues. Simplicity and solidarity are both present in the author's script.
   
   Conclusion:
   All in all, a stunning book that really deserves all the awards it has won. And a must-have to every person interested in Greek or Middle Eastern history.



5. A writer that can actually make a person reading his words, feel like they are walking along with the characters, is very gifted. I believe Karim has an extrodinary gift of mixing reality with mystisism giving us all the feeling of being apart of his books. I look forward to reading more of your books, keep writing.

No comments about Duns Scotus and Medieval Christianity (World of Philosophy).

No comments about McDowell and His Critics (Philosophers and their Critics).