Making Names
- ️Sat Nov 02 1985
Purchase options at end of file
The only book in publishing history legally to bind a university (click for explanation)
"Electra remains one of the most powerful statements of the human condition written in the past century"
(click for complete review).
An Idea of Philosophy
by Andrew Malcolm
Two strangers meet one summer's morning in a near-miss car accident: Andrew Cause is a philosopher, Malcolm Effect a research scientist. In their ensuing day-long conversation, Cause subjects Effect to a sustained sceptical attack upon the inadequacies and inconsistencies of his world-view. Traditional problems are introduced, including those of mind and body, cause and effect, free will, universals and the nature of moral goodness. Cause identifies the scientist's particle theory of matter as a crucially mistaken and hopeless metaphysics which has now outlived any usefulness. Step by step, Effect is reduced to a state of confusion, and finally he demands that Cause produce an alternative. In a literally dramatic climax the philosopher invokes a new model which, he claims, better gets to the heart of things...
Chapter Headings: 1. Minds and Bodies 2. Persons and Things 3. Causes and Effects 4. Freedoms and Laws 5. Universals and Families 6. Goods and Morals 7. Gods and Models 8. Physics and Metaphysics 9. Above Olympus
Readers' comments
"Making Names is an exceptional piece of work, highly unusual in both its content and presentation. Malcolm's use of dialogue is in certain ways more fully dramatic than Plato's or Berkeley's, his writing is fluent and wonderfully easy to read. Most of the major philosophical problems are presented and argued, but it is not until the final chapter that Malcolm's fusion of philosophy and drama takes its most audacious step, when he presents his very striking version of the tragedy Electra. Malcolm has done something in this book which is unique." Professor Roy Edgley, Sussex University. (Click for Edgley's Affidavit and courtroom testimony.)
"I think very highly of Malcolm's gifts. He has the heart of a dramatist, the soul of a poet. I found his Electra extremely interesting, deeply moving and deeply impressive; it is excellent. He has caught the true spirit of Greek tragedy. I felt as if I was reading Sophocles." Sir Karl Popper, CH, FRS. (Click for explanation and Popper index).
"The tragicomic legal struggle does little to lessen the intellectual merits ofMaking Names - its prose still shines, its questions still stand, and its 'Electra' remains one of the most powerful statements of the human condition written in the last century... The dialogue effortlessly encompasses the dogmas and agonies of intellectual history from Mill's definition of consciousness to the harnessing of black holes, via Ryle, Hume and the Pre-Socratics. The scope is all the more astonishing in the light of the animated and amusing tone of the discussion. None of the details is accidental, and a carefully placed interjection often carries more meaning than a whole shelf in the philosophy section of a well-stocked bookshop... An attentive reader would indeed find that Making Names is easily a good novel, and it is obvious to all that it is nothing short of a film script. The overall impression of the form of the dialogue, quite apart from its brilliant content, is that it is Platonic in the most literal sense - philosophical drama of outstanding quality and readability." Arina Patrikova, The Oxford Student, 30th May 2002. Click for her complete review.
An original tour de force... comparable to some of Bertrand Russell's later writing... effectively communicates the essentials of philosophy and scientific theorising to students and general readers. With its entertaining dialogues and its realistic, direct arguments it should prove to be a widely popular introductory text." R. W. Noble, The Times Educational Supplement. (Click for Noble's complete review).
"I found Making Names a valuable book because it challenges in an accessible fashion the current dogmas by which we are educated and which are too easily accepted as fact. Science is not a temple of absolutism, it is the product of individuals' creativity; it is much more like art than is generally realized. In this book, by concentrating on people, the nature of science as it is practised is well portrayed. I imagine it may well attain a certain cult status." Terence Kealey, The Spectator. (Click for Kealey's complete review).
"The progress of Malcolm's dialogue challenges, both directly and by implication, what are taken to be the guiding principles of modern physics and cosmology, particularly in respect of particle theory. He is evidently well informed about these issues and debates and presents us with a sort of voyage of discovery. Making Names is aimed at everyone..." Jeremy Mynott, Editorial Director, CUP (courtroom affidavit).
"One of the shrewdest cases for a sort of Collingwoodian Idealism that I've read... A bold attempt to do philosophy in an unusual literary format... It ought to appeal to people with a general interest in science on the one hand and literature on the other" Alan Ryan, Warden, New College Oxford. (Click for Ryan's two reports on the book's first draft 11/2/1985 and 18/7/1985).
"Making Names is in no way crazy. It is very easy to read and might prove extremely effective as an introduction to philosophical problems and procedures. Malcolm has a real gift for informal exposition, he is very clear and he knows what he's talking about." Galen Strawson, St Hugh's College, Oxford. (Click for Strawson's complete report on the book's first draft).
"I'm pleased that we are going to do Making Names and hope that it's a terrific success... I was quite gripped by the end, I was reading with the kind of attention that one gives to a novel... What sticks most in my mind is its attack on the metaphysical implications of modern particle physics, their ontological bases as objects. That struck a very strong chord with me because I have always felt that way myself about particle physics, as presented, at least, in the popular press. This was the first account I had read which came straight out and said that this does not makes sense... It is an excellent book." Henry Hardy, OUP editor.
Click for a collated file of lengthier review extracts or for the book's opening passage.
purchase options
| MAKING NAMES hardback ISBN 1874222002 £35 
|
MAKING NAMES paperback ISBN 1874222010 £25 |
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