To George Dalton (14 May 1959)

R.R. 3, Pickering, Ont.

Prof. George Dalton,
Dept. of Economics,
Boston University
College of Liberal Arts,
725 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston 15, Mass.

Dear George,

I am of course delighted for your sake that the thesis on Robert Owen was, in principle, approved by your University.

Much as I would wish it was otherwise, I cannot avoid going on record on two points: The one is the altogether exaggerated place you assign to my work, the other, the scholarly merit of such a linkage. Before registering my objections I want however with equal forthrightness to declare that your research into Owen's personality and work is of undoubted value, and that the presentation of my own thinking is done with vigor and often with a clarity superior to the original. This does not exclude at some points, misunderstandings to which I return later. If I nevertheless must disapprove of an essay that seems to rank Owen and myself on the same level, I do so not only as an expression of a most justified modesty, but also as your former teacher who is conscious of a special moral responsibility attaching to advice he might tender on matters indirectly supposing his own work. That is the reason for which as soon as you told me about your thesis, I asked you not to proceed it in its present form. This conviction of mine was greatly strengthened by an objective appraisal of the matter which did not justify a joint treatment in my opinion, since no material connection between the two figures was evident. I concede that my book - highly influenced by Owen - may have helped you to apprehend some of the features of his world of thought more sharply, but this by itself does not in my belief, create any structural context between the two otherwise distinct subjects. Finally, I cannot pass over the discrepencies of interpretations in regard to the significance of forms of integration, regulatory intervention or the institutional approach to the under-standing of social transformations.

As ever
in affectionate friendship,

KP/f
Karl Polanyi

Letter Information

Reference:
KPA: 50/04, 158