Reading up on Max Weber, as one does from time to time, drawing from the well of sociological thought before it was poisoned. What a terrible thing that he died suddenly of pneumonia in 1920, aged 56! Just getting warmed up, leaving a mass of published and unpublished material. He was a friend of Ludwig von Mises and they were colleagues in the society for policy studies, standing shoulder to shoulder against the historicists.
This prompts the thought, what would have been lost if some long-lived Austrians had died at 56? For Mises, that was 1937, before his masterwork was completed (later translated as Human Action) and before he was a living presence in the US.
For Hayek, that was 1954. No Constitution of Liberty and later works, no Nobel Prize.
For Popper, 1958, before The Logic of Scientific Discovery appeared in English and a dozen other books apart from The Open Society and The Poverty of Historicism.
People might like to nominate their favorite long-lived person and point out the work done after age 56. For instance, how old was Winston Churchill in 1939?
premature deaths have altered the course of history innumerable times, and deprived humanity of countless discoveries and works.
daddy dave
25 Apr 11 at 1:43 pm
[...] up my earlier post on Austrian longevity: Rafe Champion notes that Max Weber died suddenly of pneumonia, in 1920, at the age of 56. What important further [...]
Contributions from Mature Scholars « Organizations and Markets
28 Apr 11 at 12:35 am