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Date: | Fri Mar 31 17:18:55 2006 |
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======================== HES POSTING =====================
I have been reading Kenneth Gergen's THE SATURATED SELF: DILEMMAS OF
IDENTITY IN CONTEMPORARY LIFE (Basic, 1991). It is an interesting read,
though I don't buy completely his thesis concerning technology as the
driving force behind our current crisis. But as I read deeper into the book
I find the argument more compelling than I anticipated at the start. There
is nothing really new in the book as far as philosophy of science, etc.,
but they way that Gergen uses these developments alongside of social
psychology research and relates them to the current dilemmas of the academy
is fascinating to me.
I also recently finished Peter Bernstein's AGAINST THE GODS: THE REMARKABLE
STORY OF RISK -- Bernstein's thesis is how modernity emerged due to our
growing ability to assign risk measurements and hedge and thus calculate
alternative paths (taking into account risk). So many of the institutions
and practices we associate with the modern economy are intimately connected
to our ability to assign probabilities and make risk assessments (and thus
risk management). It is an easy read, but a fascinating one as well -- and
if one reads it from a Weber/Mises synthesis the story takes on a very
interesting meaning for economics.
The Bernstein book relates in an odd way to the Gergen book because while
one deals with the birth of modernity, the other deals with the potential
death of modernity and the birth of the post-modern, and how the
post-modern moment challenges our self awareness and self understanding of
our projects in life.
I haven't really had the time to digest these book quite yet, but they are
both enjoyable and easy summer reading -- certainly a lot better than the
new edition of the intermediate microeconomics book that I have to look at
soon to prepare my syllabus for the fall!
Peter Boettke
http://www.econ.nyu.edu/user/boettke
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