Mind of Merlin Donald

Just noticed that last year Henry Gurr recommended these two books by Merlin Donald. Browsing the links to Amazon from there, they do indeed look like worthwhile material … all the right references indexed.

Henry, you shoud turn that news items page into a blog, so that each chronological entry is linkable and searchable. Lot’s of stuff there I’d missed.

8 thoughts on “Mind of Merlin Donald”

  1. Certainly interesting subject matter, all the right references, but I can’t quite see what the guy’s thesis / conclusion is yet.

    Like the idea of the “sociology of science” …

  2. (Oh, yeah, and you’re right another long URL, breaks the comment page … a bug with the new blog template … rats. Not your fault.)

  3. well, they do leave a lot out on purpose

    I will definitely be purchasing this one.

    Perhaps he has no thesis. Perhaps his main objective is exposition, which is fine with me, because I’d rather have someone give me the background and historical context than spend the entire paper arguing for or against something I don’t have a firm grasp of in the first place.

    It would seem that he thinks that all thinking has a context and that that must be considered.

    He seems pretty even handed and I like the idea of the “sociology of science” too.

    Wish I could help with the URL issue on my end, but that’s not happening unless you tell me how.

  4. Strangely, it seems there might be some connection between Feuer and Pirsg, the 60’s, the University of Chicago, Leo Strauss, Allan Bloom and the neo-conservatives.

    Hell, let’s throw Ten Years After in there, too.

  5. Just heard about this little gem today as we were driving home from (of all places) Las Vegas. Actually St. George, Utah, where my husband’s daughter resides.

    http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/catalog/titledetail.cfm?titleNumber=689694

    The more I think about it, the more I think you could leave out Joshua Tree from your itinerary. There are thousands of them on your way anywhere from where you are going.

    Besides, no matter what U-2 thinks they are very ugly trees.

    Sorry, Joshua!

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