Ben F. Meyer

The Passion of Michel Foucault by James E. Miller Simon & Schuster, 491 pages, $27.50 By 1971, when Dutch TV in the U.S. staged a discussion between Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault, both were stars in the firmament of new left politics. Arthur Schlesinger, spokesman for the old left, after an . . . . Continue Reading »

Signs of the Times: Deconstruction and the Fall of Paul de Man by David Lehman Poseidon Press/Simon & Schuster, 318 pages, $21.95 David Lehman’s book on deconstruction has the rare quality of being better than its jacket blurbs and prepublication puffs. It is more than “lively and engaging” . . . . Continue Reading »

Wise is he to whom all things taste as they are.—Joseph Pieper The first time the popular use of “pragmatic” registered on me was during the campaign of 1960. Time explained that religion was not a real danger with either Kennedy or Nixon, since both were “pragmatic.” It was . . . . Continue Reading »

Before we dismantle this imposing structure, let’s step back a moment and admire its elegant lines.” Thus Alex Tourigny, my teacher of philosophical psychology forty years ago, was wont to mark the pause before the crusher. His version of the crusher was a deadly “reduction to first . . . . Continue Reading »