Talk:C. B. Macpherson

Untitled

This article does not take a detached point of view. See, e.g., the following comment, which sides with Macpherson against Fukuyama: "Macpherson's work can be used to study whether or not there is any benefit by using the socialist tradition to assess contemporary society, despite what Fukuyama says."

Even more questionable is the following sentence in the opening paragraph: "He [Macpherson] is regarded, along with Harold Innis and Marshall McLuhan, as one of the most influential academics in the university's history." Macpherson was not nearly as influential as Nobel Laureate Frederick Banting, the co-discoverer of insulin, nor was he as influential as the literary critic Northrop Frye. Macpherson was indeed well known in his field during his lifetime, but his name would barely register among the younger generation of political theorists (except the Marxist theorists, who are now a very small minority in their field of study). At least in terms of "name recognition," one can think of many University of Toronto professors whose influence was greater than that of Macpherson: Ursula Franklin, John Polanyi, Allan Bloom, and Robertson Davies, among others.

In short, this article is overly biased in favour of its subject and needs to be cleaned up. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.173.222.175 (talk) 22:15, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

It is ironic that the call to clean up the article due to perceived bias is at least as biased in its assessment. The claims regarding MacPherson's influence are certainly accurate, as he is still studied by political science students today. Additionally, he edited and prepared many wide read texts on political philosophy, such as Hobbes' Leviathan. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rampagingbeaver (talk • contribs) 22:06, 14 April 2009 (UTC)