How to Explain the World Without Becoming a Bore

|Peter Boettke|

That is the subtitle of Peter Berger's fascinating memoir, Adventures of an Accidental Sociologist. And for anyone who has read Peter Berger, listened to him give a lecture, or had the opportunity to visit and converse with him, the one obvious fact is that he is never boring and certainly never a bore.  He is simply one of the more fascinating people you will ever encounter.  Charming and self-effacing, Berger is a great story teller and loves to use jokes to illustrate profound points.  He does not rely on academic jargon to make his points, but instead writes intelligently in plain language --- this is as true for The Social Construction of Reality as for Invitation to Sociology.  He simply invites his readers to join him in an intellectual journey to understand mankind in all walks of life and in all his endeavors --- even those that most of us would like to keep behind closed doors and hidden from public examination.  He is simply curious about the way we live, work, play, love, pray, etc.

Adventures is an amazing read from his time at the New School to his studies of religion and modernity, from his work on The Social Construction of Reality to its unintended (and unwelcomed) influence among the post-modernist nihilists, from his explorations of capitalism and development to his frustrating interactions with economists.  What an intellectual tour, and what a professional life well-spent pursuing one's intellectual curiosity about mankind!

I was fortunate enough to have been a fellow at Berger's Institute for the Study of Economic Culture in 1992 (along with David Prychitko) and then to have been invited back to be a lecturer in a similar program at the revamped Institute for Culture, Religion and World Affairs and to also be part of a study team on spiritual capital and economic development.  Among my biggest professional disappointments in my career was that I was blocked in 1997 by the economics department at BU from joining Berger's Institute as a faculty member.  But that is a story for a different day.  My point is simply that I have learned much from Peter Berger over the years and continue to learn.  I have heard versions of many of the stories told in these pages, but they always appear fresh to me and to always have a point behind them that is essential for our broader understanding of man.

As part of my work with the Fund for the Study of Spontaneous Order, we awarded Berger the Lifetime Achievement Award and sponsored a conference on his work a few years ago.  The papers from that conference were subsequently published in the journal, Society, 47 (3) May 2010. An open access version of my paper can be found here.

Berger's memoir is based on a public lecture he gave at the Central European University, which can be seen here:

 

 

BTW, watch around the 25 minute mark for those of you fascinated by the history of the Austrian School because this is where he will discuss the influence of Alfred Schutz.  For an appreciation of Schutz see the special issue of the RAE edited by Roger Koppl and myself -- 14 (2-3) 2001. 

HT: Tyler Cowen for alerting me to this book.

Comments

[Richard Ebeling]

Unlike Pete, I've never had the opportunity of interacting with Peter Berger.

But I discovered his writings back in the 1970s and 1980s. He refined and applied in fascinating and extremely insightful ways the ideas of Max Weber and Alfred Schutz in his "The Social Construction of Reality." For anyone interested in the use and application of methodological subjectivism and individualism for understanding the social world, this book remains invaluable.

(I should mention that he also penned a fascinating short book on an introduction to sociology that, I'm sure, remains worth reading even after many decades. It is entitled, "Invitation to Sociology.")

But in addition, in the 1980s, Berger began to have "second thoughts" about the political economy of society. The end result of which was an important book, "The Capitalist Revolution." Berger questioned his own views on the nature of political regimes, the economic system, and the social order, in terms of man, his nature, and the incentives for action and productive effort in society.

He investigated the growing prosperity of what was then beginning to be called the "little tigers" of East Asia (South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore), and contrasted it with the political economy of mainland China under a communist regime that was just starting to escape from its Maoist period.

He looked at the role of private property, the profit motive, place of the industrious entrepreneur, and the importance of freedom from overpowering government, and "rediscovered" the sociology as well as the political economy of the market order. An order that combined liberty with prosperity, and fostered a vibrant society and culture.

When Berger's book appeared in the 1980s, it was a time when socialism and planning were still considered workable and ethically superior ways of organizing society. Peter Berger helped put that belief to rest through a positive defense of market capitalism.

And I would be remiss if I did not also mention his 1984 book (co-authored with Brigitte Berger), "The War over the Family." It is a spirited defense of the "bourgeois" family, with many fascinating insights about the positive affects of 19th century capitalism in fostering a growing middle class that included both more wealth and culture; and its creation of something never known before -- "childhood," since parents now began to earn enough that children did not have to immediately enter the work force to support themselves.

I very much look forward to reading Peter Berger's autobiography.

Richard Ebeling

[Rafe Champion]

Peter Berger must deplore the way his work was appropriated by radicals in the 1970s and he would probbaly find Deirdre McCloskey's work on the bourgeoise virtues to be congenial.

[Roger Koppl]

Berger is someone to pay attention to. The Social Construction of Reality is not "constructivist," but subjectivist. It's essential reading, I think, for anyone who takes Austrian knowledge problems seriously. It is a shame that it has become a classic (and hence generally unread) work for the tradition of social constructionism. It seems as if no one paid attention when Berger and Luckmann said they were not taking a position on any "ancient philosophical preoccupations." Never mind what they actually wrote, let's go with what we wish they had written. :-/

BTW: Berger laudes two people for being exceptions to his otherwise negative experience with economists, Gustav Papanek and some guy named Peter Boettke.

[Peter Boettke]

Roger,

Thanks for that mention --- the relevant discussion is Peter Berger, Adventures of an Accidental Sociologist (Promethus Books, 2011): 213ff, where he discusses his relationship with economists. It is an interesting discussion of what is, and what might not be, wrong with economics with respect to the other social sciences and the humanities.

As might be expected, I wholeheartedly endorse Richard Ebeling and Roger Koppl's comments on the fundamental importance of Berger's work.

[Michael J. Green]

I just want to offer a belated thanks for this post. I've ordered a copy of Berger's The Capitalist Revolution and have put his memoir on my wish list. It looks like some fascinating work and I can't wait to start reading.