Opening on Something

Prejudices: A Philosophical Dictionary is a loose-fitting title. Robert Nisbet has actually written a collection of short essays (about seventy) and arranged them alphabetically by topic: abortion, alienation, anomie, atheism, authoritarianism, and so on, down to war, wit. By his own confession this doesn’t qualify as a reference book. But you can waste time profitably with it.

Idiosyncratic, is what it is. Learnedly so. Robert Nisbet knows practically everything, arid he wants to get a lot of things off his chest. At his worst, he annoys. He can be peevish, snobbish, and then some. He generalizes too much, and demands that you take his word for it all. At his best he makes you feel that this is what learning is for: knowledge shaped by personality, the very thing reference books can’t give. Even when he gets well-nigh insufferable, you want to read a little more.

JS

About the Author

Joseph Sobran

Prejudices: A Philosophical Dictionary is a loose-fitting title. Robert Nisbet has actually written a collection of short essays (about seventy) and arranged them alphabetically by topic: abortion, alienation, anomie, atheism, authoritarianism, and so on, down to war, wit. By his own confession this doesn’t qualify as a reference book. But you can waste time profitably with it.

Idiosyncratic, is what it is. Learnedly so. Robert Nisbet knows practically everything, arid he wants to get a lot of things off his chest. At his worst, he annoys. He can be peevish, snobbish, and then some. He generalizes too much, and demands that you take his word for it all. At his best he makes you feel that this is what learning is for: knowledge shaped by personality, the very thing reference books can’t give. Even when he gets well-nigh insufferable, you want to read a little more.