Making Names Reviewed (original) (raw)
Professor Roy Edgley
"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.
It has been said that Russell had the rare ability to write books that were both original contributions to philosophy and at the same time introductions for beginners; it seems to me that Malcolm has something of that kind of talent. One of the most striking of his original contributions is his account and criticism of Wittgenstein's theory of universals. Another is where he takes Hume's famous argument about 'ought' and 'is' and points out that Hume himself perpetrates the kind of inference which, explicitly he is disallowing. Then there is his general monist position from which he produces a peculiar combination of both materialism and idealism. Finally, there is a striking account of the language of modern particle physics which connects it with theology; here, I find Malcolm's proposal very daring and the specific form of his argument unique. All these contributions, I think, should be of considerable interest to professional philosophers.
Extracts of affidavit evidence and courtroom testimony of Professor Roy Edgley, Sussex University (Malcolm's independent expert witness at the damages assessment hearing, 10th July 1991). Click for Edgley's affidavit and courtroom testimony.
Sir Karl Popper, CH, FRS.
Note from A. M.: In April 1993, I received a phonecall from Sir Karl Popper (the history of our contact is recounted in The Remedy), which he invited me to tape-record and to use as I saw fit. He had certain reservations concerning the early chapters of Making Names, but of the last chapter, he said the following:
"I will start from the end, because, as you yourself say, that is the best part. Now, about Electra I want to make clear to you that I am deeply interested not only, as you know, in Greek philosophy, but also in Greek tragedy... I was deeply impressed by your Electra. I think it is excellent... I think very highly of your gifts. I must say I read it, how shall I say, as if it were written by Sophocles. I really felt that you have caught the spirit of Greek tragedy, and I felt that you are a poet. I was deeply moved."
Click for full Popper/Malcolm communications Index
R. W. Noble
"Andrew Malcolm's Making Names, with its entertaining philosophical dialogues, is an interesting publishing event in itself, even if we were not aware of the fact that this book made legal history when the Appeal Court ruled that Oxford University Press infringed the law when they reneged on their contract to publish it. Now that we have the book, what's it about?
Making Names is an original tour de force As its title forewarns us, it deals with some modish issues of semiotics, but the overall contents are more comparable to some of Bertrand Russell's later writing, effectively communicating the essentials of philosophy and scientific theorising to students and general readers... With their realistic, direct arguments, the core dialogues in Making Names should make it a widely popular introductory text."
R.W. Noble, The Times Educational Supplement, 25th September 1992. Click for Noble's complete review.
Terence Kealey
"I very much enjoyed Making Names and consider it to be a valuable book. It is a comprehensive, professional text that introduces the philosophy that is taught in sixth-form colleges or polytechnics. The originality of its dialogue format makes it fun to read. Resourceful teachers will find it useful. I found it valuable 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 Making Names may well attain a certain cult status."
Terence Kealey, affidavit testimony and review in The Spectator, 10th April 1993. Click for Kealey's complete review.
Arina Patrikova
"A very long time ago, a truth was seen. Then, a book was written and rewritten, trimmed and polished for the indifferent demands of the general reader, gradually acquiring a cover design, an audience, a publisher, while the core idea patiently ripened, undisturbed by litigation and dispute. Now, more than twenty years since its completion, Making Names is neither obsolete nor dispensable. The tragicomic legal struggle does little to lessen the intellectual merits of_Making 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 between Cause and Effect, philosopher and scientist, 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.
Jeremy Mynott
****"Making Names is a wide-ranging discussion of various traditional philosophical problems in metaphysics, epistemology and the philosophy of science set in the form of a dialogue between two men and concluding with an allegorical drama based on the Electra story in Greek tragedy.**
The dialogue is not badly done, becomes noticeably denser as the work proceeds, and it 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. The work is not without merit, and is not 'wrong' in some technically demonstrable and disqualifying way. Malcolm is evidently well informed about these issues and debates, and presents us with a sort of voyage of discovery. This is in its way admirable, and a justification for a work of philosophy or literature. Making Names is aimed at everyone..."
Jeremy Mynott, Editorial Director, Cambridge University Press (Oxford's independent witness at the damages assessment hearing, 10th July 1991). Click for Mynott's affidavit and courtroom testimony.
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## Extracts from Oxford's reports on the book's first (1984) draft
## Alan Ryan
"Making Names is philosophically rather good, I think. It makes one of the shrewdest cases for a sort of Collingwoodian Idealism that I've read. I like the dialogue style; generally it is rather fun, and the two protagonists are distinct personalities, to say the least. It might do well as an introduction to philosophy for people doing 'A' Level philosophy and Open University courses. It is well worth doing, both because it is interesting in itself, and because it is a bold attempt to do philosophy in an unusual literary format - most dialogues fall terribly flat, but his seems to me to stand up very well for long stretches. It ought to appeal to people with a general interest in science on the one hand and literature on the other. So I hope that we can gallop ahead. It would be nice to take a chance and win, and a bit of boldness is in order."
Alan Ryan, Warden, New College, Oxford. Click for Ryan's complete reports: first, 11/2/1985; second, 18/7/1985. Then try his damages affidavit and THES letter.
"boorish, alienating, very unclear, unfathomable... coarse and jeering... not a plausible commercial proposition... I believe it would have sunk without trace.
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## Galen Strawson
"Making Names is really quite an attractive book. It is in no way crazy. It is very easy to read. Malcolm has a real gift for informal exposition. He is very clear and he knows what he's talking about. Making Names might prove extremely effective as an introduction to philosophical problems and procedures. The dialogue form also works well.
Galen Strawson, St Hugh's College, Oxford. Click for Strawson's complete report, 14/7/1985.
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## Henry Hardy
"I have now finished reading Making Names and we would like to do it... I was quite gripped by the end, I was reading with the kind of attention that one gives to a novel, which is not very usual with a philosophical work... I am pleased that we are going to do Making Names and hope that it's a terrific success.
Making Names is an excellent book... 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."
Henry Hardy, OUP and Wolfson College, Oxford. For all of Hardy's communications, go to the Case papers index.
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Click for the book's opening passage.
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