Representing Minimalism

Abstract

Juan Uriagereka,Rhyme and reason. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998. Pp. xliii+669.

In this wide-ranging and ambitious volume, Juan Uriagereka sets as his goal both a conceptual and a technical explication of Chomsky's Minimalist Program as well as the siting of it within the broader context of scientific inquiry into the nature of human beings and the natural world. Reintroducing an old rhetorical device into modern scientific discourse, the book is framed as a series of dialogues over six days between a Chomskyan linguist and a sceptical interlocutor called ‘The Other’, a ‘hard’ scientist whose knowledge encompasses not only contemporary physics and biology, but also mathematics and philosophy.

The temptation to frame a review using the same rhetorical device is considerable. It is not much of an exaggeration to say that Uriagereka has attempted to create a book about everything for anyone, and has attempted to do so in a way that is unusual, clever and interesting. That he is largely successful in this enterprise is truly remarkable. On the other hand, there is also the lingering feeling that it is fractionally too clever, and fractionally too ambitious, with the result that what could have easily been a classic of modern scientific writing does not quite fulfill its potential.