THE PARADOXICAL PRIMATE ‐ Edited by Colin Talbot
| Date | 01 August 2006 |
| Author | Michael Connolly |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2006.00612_7.x |
| Published date | 01 August 2006 |
796 REVIEWS
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2006 Public Administration Vol. 84, No. 3, 2006 (783–810)
THE PARADOXICAL PRIMATE
Colin Talbot
Imprint Academic, 2005, 96 pp., £8.95 (pb) ISBN: 090784851
This ‘ little book about a big subject ’ is printed in the Societas series of essays
in political and cultural criticism, a series which seeks to produce pamphlets
intended for the general reader to read in a single evening. It is a series that
has, I think, produced some good, argumentative texts and I welcomed the
opportunity to read another one. The book ’ s central theme is that human
instincts and behaviour are permanently contradictory – the paradox at the
heart of humankind. From this Talbot argues that a rational (social) science
is self-defeating and misses out too much. To support this argument he
draws on management theory, using in particular Bob Quinn ’ s work, public
administrative theory and practice, political theory and psychology as well
as natural science, where Talbot refers to E.O. Wilson ’ s book Consilience
( Wilson 1999 ). Along the way he has a go at some alternative perspectives.
These include the usual suspects, the utility maximizer of the economist
who ignores the simple fact of humankind ’ s altruism, for example (though
if it is paradoxes you are after, Adam Smith ’ s thesis that we all benefi t from
the selfi sh actions of each individual is not a bad one). But, perhaps rather
surprisingly, Royston Greenwood et al. ’ s 1970s ’ work also comes in for some
abuse: surprisingly because in one of the sub-plots Colin Talbot argues for
what he terms a realist view of social science and the Greenwood et al.
material is surely in that tradition. Talbot ’ s complaint is that he has some
concerns about the research and its conclusions.
This realist view argues that paradoxes exist in the real world waiting for
us to discover them. There are a couple of side swipes at social constructiv-
ism, which, like religion, is simply wrong and impedes the growth of real
knowledge. Two further sub-plots are articulated, namely, the fundamental
unity of all sciences and social sciences and hence their need to be reinte-
grated, and the value of Darwinism.
I enjoyed reading this book. It is indeed argumentative – Professor Talbot
is in the tradition of those footballing centre-halves of old who welcomed
the centre forward by seeing how far he went when kicked – and few, if any,
punches are pulled, but that makes the book the more enjoyable. The range
of reading is impressive and I certainly found interesting some material that
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