Failure to Define
Kaplan, Morton A.
Failure to Define Zone of Indifference, by Robert Strausz-Hupe. Putnam's. 312 pp. $3.75. Reviewed by Morton A. Kaplan STRAUSZ-HUPE seems overly addicted in his latest book to imprecision in...
...Reviewed by Morton A. Kaplan STRAUSZ-HUPE seems overly addicted in his latest book to imprecision in his conceptions and looseness in his argumentation...
...Strausz-Hupe's conclusion that our foreign policy may have erred in forcing a "friend-or-enemy" attitude upon the rest of the world seems plausible, but it is neither well-proved nor clearly related to the bulk of the discussion which precedes it...
...Drawing upon allusions to remote historical periods and referring to abstruse philosophical and sociological thinkers, he overwhelms with statements that can only confuse the lay reader and fail to convince the specialist...
...However, the discussion lacks incisiveness and originality...
...One has the feeling that the author is thinking aloud rather than presenting us with conclusions arising from long and mature reflection...
...The author indicates certain problems of genuine importance, thus revealing a power of discernment for which he is to be congratulated...
...These problems include the relation of cultural to political developments and the role of the individual in an age of standardization and mechanization...
...There is a failure of definition, an intrusion of non-commensurable hypotheses, and a lack of consecutive argumentation that makes the book difficult to follow...
Vol. 17 • April 1953 • No. 4
