Knowledge and Economic Conduct: The Social Foundations of the Modern Economy

David Robinson is an associate professor of economics at Laurentian
University.

Nico Stehr is a prolific writer, the author of several books, the Karl
Manheim Professor for Cultural studies at Zeppelin University, the
editor of the Canadian Journal of Sociology, and a Fellow of the Center
for Advanced Studies of the Humanities in Essen, Germany.

Knowledge and Economic Conduct is his attempt to develop a “new
agenda for social science.” A new agenda is needed because “the age
of labour and property is at an end.” Any book with such a startling
claim by such a prominent and respected author should be a major event
in Canadian letters.

Instead, it is a major disappointment. The book seems to have been
compiled posthumously by an admirer with only a vague idea of what the
manuscript was about. Unless (the still living) Stehr believes, with Leo
Strauss (the author of Persecution and the Art of Writing), that clarity
in a philosopher’s work endangers both the philosopher and society, he
and the University of Toronto Press have forgotten their editorial
responsibilities.

Stehr even turns his encyclopedic knowledge of the literature into a
disadvantage. Including 63 pages of notes might be a sign of academic
thoroughness, but it looks more like a failure to digest his material.

It is hard to think of anyone who needs to read the book. There are
several interesting passages, but Stehr has written better books with
most of the same material, so readers can do without this one. And Stehr
himself does not need to go down in history as the author of lines like
“knowledge requires an active actor” or “the fate of Luhmann’s
efforts are self-exemplifying.” Out of kindness to all, let’s not
call attention to this one.