Download or read book The Utopian Mind and Other Papers written by Aurel Kolnai and published by Burns & Oates. This book was released on 1995 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unfinished at the time of Kolnai's death, The Utopian Mind should be widely welcomed by students of moral and political philosophy. It provides a powerful critique of the Utopian mode of valuation. Kolnai locates utopian thinking in totalitarian systems of the Right and Left and as an unspoken background to much liberal thought and to many of the best known theories of moral philosophy.
Download or read book Utopia written by Thomas More and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2019-04-08 with total page 105 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Utopia is a work of fiction and socio-political satire by Thomas More published in 1516 in Latin. The book is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs. Many aspects of More's description of Utopia are reminiscent of life in monasteries.
Download or read book Privilege and Liberty and Other Essays in Political Philosophy written by Aurel Kolnai and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 1999 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We are currently witnessing an increasingly influential counterrevolution in political theory, evident in the dialectical return to classical political science pioneered most prominently by Leo Strauss and Eric Voegelin. In this context, the work of the relatively unknown Aurel Kolnai is of great importance. Kolnai was one of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century to place the restoration of common-sense evaluation and philosophical realism at the center of his philosophical and political itinerary. In this volume, Daniel J. Mahoney presents Kolnai's major writings in political philosophy, writings that explore - in ways that are diverse but complementary - Kolnai's critique of progressive or egalitarian democracy. The title essay contains Kolnai's fullest account of the limits of liberty understood as emancipation from traditional, natural, or divine restraints. 'The Utopian Mind, ' a pr, cis of Kolnai's critique of utopianism in a posthumous book of the same title, appears here for the first time. 'Conservative and Revolutionary Ethos, ' Kolnai's remarkable 1972 essay comparing conservative and revolutionary approaches to political life, appears for the first time in English translation. The volume also includes a critically sympathetic evaluation of Michael Oakeshott's Rationalism in Politics and an incisive criticism of Jacques Maritain's efforts to synthesize Christian orthodoxy and progressive politics. Privilege and Liberty and Other Essays in Political Philosophy is a searching critique of political utopianism, as well as a pathbreaking articulation of conservative constitutionalism as the true support for human liberty properly understood. It is a major contribution to Christian and conservative political reflection in our ti
Download or read book The Life and Thought of Aurel Kolnai written by Francis Dunlop and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-11-22 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title was first published in 2002: ’I sincerely believe that Dr Kolnai is one of the most original and stimulating thinkers in the field of political philosophy alive today.’ Karl Popper Kolnai's moral and political thought was developed against the background of Liberal and then Bolshevist revolutions in Hungary, the gradual move towards fascism in twenties and thirties Vienna, and the progress of the Second World War as seen from the USA. Born a Jew, he became a Roman Catholic, and lived successively in Hungary, Austria, France, the USA, Canada and England. He remained, throughout his extraordinary life, a passionate believer in reason and common sense, and the sworn enemy of all philosophical and political systems. Study of Kolnai has been hampered by political developments, his own peripatetic life, and the fact that his writings appeared in five different languages, yet interest in Kolnai is now growing. This book offers the first comprehensive picture of Kolnai's complete works and life. Dunlop presents Kolnai the man in his social and political setting, and offers an accessible exploration of all his writings, whether published or not, including translated passages from papers and letters in Kolnai's various languages. Including a selective bibliography of Kolnai's works, this book presents an important study of this unique political and moral philosopher, showing his relevance in contemporary philosophical thought.
Download or read book City of Refuge written by Michael J. Lewis and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2016-11-14 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating exploration of the urbanism at the heart of Utopian thinking The vision of Utopia obsessed the nineteenth-century mind, shaping art, literature, and especially town planning. In City of Refuge, Michael Lewis takes readers across centuries and continents to show how Utopian town planning produced a distinctive type of settlement characterized by its square plan, collective ownership of properties, and communal dormitories. Some of these settlements were sanctuaries from religious persecution, like those of the German Rappites, French Huguenots, and American Shakers, while others were sanctuaries from the Industrial Revolution, like those imagined by Charles Fourier, Robert Owen, and other Utopian visionaries. Because of their differences in ideology and theology, these settlements have traditionally been viewed separately, but Lewis shows how they are part of a continuous intellectual tradition that stretches from the early Protestant Reformation into modern times. Through close readings of architectural plans and archival documents, many previously unpublished, he shows the network of connections between these seemingly disparate Utopian settlements—including even such well-known town plans as those of New Haven and Philadelphia. The most remarkable aspect of the city of refuge is the inventive way it fused its eclectic sources, ranging from the encampments of the ancient Israelites as described in the Bible to the detailed social program of Thomas More's Utopia to modern thought about education, science, and technology. Delving into the historical evolution and antecedents of Utopian towns and cities, City of Refuge alters notions of what a Utopian community can and should be.
Download or read book Intending the World written by Ralph Pettman and published by Academic Monographs. This book was released on 2008 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How we look at the world is informed mainly by our assumptions and the ways in which we rationalise them. Seldom do we rely-or allow ourselves to rely-on 'gut thinking' or intuition. Intending the World shows how rationalism, which is our primary approach in thinking about world affairs, is in crisis. By studying the world rationalistically, we objectify it and we look at it as detached from ourselves. But in doing so, we cease to see that we are using a perspective that limits as well as enlightens. In a disciplinary first, Ralph Pettman provides an account of twenty-first century international relations in terms of phenomenology-one of the main philosophical attempts to compensate for these limits. He explores how this re-embedded use of reason can successfully describe and explain world affairs in ways unused by rationalists. Intending the World follows the lead of the German philosopher Edmund Husserl. It looks at the world not only in terms of things-in-themselves, but also in terms of why it is we keep willing the world the way we do.
Download or read book The Virtues of Limits written by David McPherson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-12-15 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human beings seek to transcend limits. This is part of our potential greatness, since it is how we can realize what is best in our humanity. However, the limit-transcending feature of human life is also part of our potential downfall, as it can lead to dehumanization and failure to attain important human goods and to prevent human evils. Exploring the place of limits within a well-lived human life this work develops and defends an original account of limiting virtues, which are concerned with recognizing proper limits in human life. The limiting virtues that are the focus are humility, reverence, moderation, contentment, neighborliness, and loyalty, and they are explored in relation to four kinds of limits: existential limits, moral limits, political limits, and economic limits. These virtues have been underexplored in discussions about virtue ethics, and when they have been explored it has not been with regard to the general issue of the place of limits within a well-lived human life. The account of the limiting virtues provided here, however, is intended as a counter to other prominent approaches to ethics: namely, autonomy-centered approaches and consequentialist (or maximizing) approaches. This account is also used to address a number of important contemporary issues such as genetic engineering, distributive justice, cosmopolitanism vs. patriotism, and the ethical status of growth-based economics.
Download or read book Virtually Lost written by Garry Robson and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-05-16 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the connections between the psycho-social difficulties and challenges faced by children and younger people in their online lives; the structure, character, and motivations of the corporate system ‘behind’ the screen; and the possibility that the digital technostructure may come to form the backbone of a new post-democratic system of technocratic governance. Much of the originality of this book lies in its blending of subjects that are not often combined, thereby offering a fresh perspective: ‘generation studies’; the philosophy of technology; the history of the idea of technocracy; the technologically enhanced merger of corporate・governmental power in the U.S. system; the society-shaping goals and capabilities of the big tax-exempt American foundations over the last hundred years; the elite ‘superclass’ gaming of formally constituted transnational and global institutions; and the way the United Nations-centred SDG・ESG system is itself developing in the direction of a technocratic system of economic and population management. The book will appeal to readers interested in relationships between our contemporary global power elite, the structures it has created and processes it has set in motion, and how these affect young people whose development is already being over-determined by the activities of the big Silicon Valley entities and their associates.
Download or read book Exploring the World of Human Practice written by Zolt n Bal zs and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aurel Kolnai was born in Budapest, in 1900 and died in London, in 1973. His moral philosophy is best described in his own words as "intrinsicalist, non-naturalist, non-reductionist." The unique combination of linguistic analysis and phenomenology yields highly original ideas on classical fields of moral theory. Presents a selection of essays by Kolnai, including his main political theoretical work, What is Politics About, available in English here for the first time. Kolnai's work is also analyzed in a series of essays by eminent scholars.
Download or read book The Emergence of Illiberalism written by Boris Vormann and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-07-26 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As illiberal and authoritarian trends are on the rise—both in fragile and seemingly robust democracies—there is growing concern about the longevity of liberalism and democracy. The purpose of this volume is to draw on the analytical resources of various disciplines and public policy approaches to reflect on the current standing of liberal democracy. Leading social scientists from different disciplinary backgrounds aim to examine the ideological and structural roots of the current crisis of liberal democracies, in the West and beyond, conceptually and empirically. The volume is divided into two main parts: Part I explores tensions between liberalism and democracy in a longer-term, historical perspective to explain immanent vulnerabilities of liberal democracy. Authors examine the conceptual foundations of Western liberal democracy that have shaped its standing in the contemporary world. What lies at the core of illiberal tendencies? Part II explores case studies from the North Atlantic, Eastern Europe, Turkey, India, Japan, and Brazil, raising questions whether democratic crises, manifested in the rise of populist movements in and beyond the Western context, differ in kind or only in degree. How can we explain the current popular appeal of authoritarian governments and illiberal ideas? The Emergence of Illiberalism will be of great interest to teachers and students of politics, sociology, political theory and comparative government.
Download or read book The Idol of Our Age written by Daniel J. Mahoney and published by Encounter Books. This book was released on 2020-04-14 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a learned essay at the intersection of politics, philosophy, and religion. It is first and foremost a diagnosis and critique of the secular religion of our time, humanitarianism, or the “religion of humanity.” It argues that the humanitarian impulse to regard modern man as the measure of all things has begun to corrupt Christianity itself, reducing it to an inordinate concern for “social justice,” radical political change, and an increasingly fanatical egalitarianism. Christianity thus loses its transcendental reference points at the same time that it undermines balanced political judgment. Humanitarians, secular or religious, confuse peace with pacifism, equitable social arrangements with socialism, and moral judgment with utopianism and sentimentality. With a foreword by the distinguished political philosopher Pierre Manent, Mahoney’s book follows Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in affirming that Christianity is in no way reducible to a “humanitarian moral message.” In a pungent if respectful analysis, it demonstrates that Pope Francis has increasingly confused the Gospel with left-wing humanitarianism and egalitarianism that owes little to classical or Christian wisdom. It takes its bearings from a series of thinkers (Orestes Brownson, Aurel Kolnai, Vladimir Soloviev, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn) who have been instructive critics of the “religion of humanity.” These thinkers were men of peace who rejected ideological pacifism and never confused Christianity with unthinking sentimentality. The book ends by affirming the power of reason, informed by revealed faith, to provide a humanizing alternative to utopian illusions and nihilistic despair.
Download or read book Dimensions of Politics and English Jurisprudence written by Sean Coyle and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-06-27 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Understandings of law and politics are intrinsically bound up with broader visions of the human condition. Sean Coyle argues for a renewed engagement with the juridical and political philosophies of the Western intellectual tradition, and takes up questions pondered by Aristotle, Plato, Augustine, Aquinas and Hobbes in seeking a deeper understanding of law, politics, freedom, justice and order. Criticising modern theories for their failure to engage with fundamental questions, he explores the profound connections between justice and order and raises the neglected question of whether human beings in all their imperfection can ever achieve truly just order in this life. Above all, he confronts the question of whether the open society is the natural home of liberals who have given up faith in human progress (there are no ideal societies), or whether liberal political order is itself the ideal society?
Download or read book A History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe written by Balázs Trencsenyi and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-10 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe is a synthetic work, authored by an international team of researchers, covering twenty national cultures and 250 years. It goes beyond the conventional nation-centered narratives and presents a novel vision especially sensitive to the cross-cultural entanglement of political ideas and discourses. Its principal aim is to make these cultures available for the global 'market of ideas' and revisit some of the basic assumptions about the history of modern political thought, and modernity as such. The present volume is the final part of the project, following Volume I: Negotiating Modernity in the 'Long Nineteenth Century', and Volume II, Part I: Negotiating Modernity in the 'Short Twentieth Century' (1918-1968) (OUP, 2018). Its starting point is the defeat of the vision of 'socialism with a human face' in 1968 and the political discourses produced by the various 'consolidation' or 'normalization' regimes. It continues with mapping the exile communities' and domestic dissidents' critical engagement with the local democratic and anti-democratic traditions as well as with global trends. Rather than achieving the coveted 'end of history', however, the liberal democratic order created in East Central Europe after 1989 became increasingly contested from left and right alike. Thus, instead of a comfortable conclusion pointing to the European integration of most of these countries, the book closes with a reflection on the fragility of democracy in this part of the world and beyond.
Download or read book Raymond Aron written by Brian C. Anderson and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This concise and penetrating analysis introduces students to the life and thought of one of the giants of twentieth- century French intellectual life. Portraying Raymond Aron as a great defender of reason, moderation, and political sobriety in an era dominated by ideological fervor and philosophical fashion, Brian Anderson demonstrates the centrality of political reason to Aron's philosophy of history, his critique of ideological thinking, his meditations on the perennial problems of peace and war, and the nature of conservative liberalism. This accessible study of Aron's thought and the thought of his contemporaries will enhance any syllabus for classes on modern and contemporary political thought.
Download or read book Frameworks Artworks Place written by Tim Mehigan and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How space – mental, emotional, visual – is implicated in our constructions of reality and our art is the focus of this set of innovative essays. For the first time art theorists and historians, visual artists, literary critics and philosophers have come together to assay the problem of space both within conventional discipline boundaries and across them. What emerges is a stimulating discussion of the problem of embodied space and situated consciousness that will be of interest to the general reader as well as specialists working in the fields of art history and art practice, literature, philosophy and education.
Download or read book Democracy and Its Friendly Critics written by Peter Augustine Lawler and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2004 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this edited collection, Peter Lawler presents a lucid and comprehensive introduction to a diverse set of political issues according to Tocqueville. Democracy and Its Friendly Critics addresses a variety of modern political and social concerns, such as the moral dimension of democracy, the theoretical challenges to democracy in our time, the religious dimension of liberty, and the meaning of work in contemporary American Life. Taking innovative and unexpected approaches toward familiar topics, the essays present engaging insights into a democratic society, and the contributors include some of today's leading figures in political philosophy. No other collection on Tocqueville addresses contemporary American political issues in such a direct and accessible fashion, making this book a valuable resource for the study of political theory in America.
Download or read book The Political Philosophy of Pierre Manent written by Joseph R. Wood and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2024-08-30 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents and evaluates the understanding of political form in the work of Pierre Manent. The study of political form is Manent's central philosophical task. He is interested in the nature of man, in the action that makes us human, and thus in politics and political action as privileged windows into human nature and what it is to be human. Manent places himself in the classical political tradition, with its foundations in human nature and in a politics that accords with nature. He also situates himself within a triangle of faith, philosophy, and politics, all of which interest him as part of the reality of things even as he avoids an exclusive commitment to any one vertex in his investigation. The book first examines the major influences on Manent; the overarching questions that guide his work on political form, the "theologico-political question" and the question of the "modern difference" with the ancient view of man and politics; and his two intertwined paths of inquiry into political events and political thought. Manent describes political forms as "the modes of human association that no science has taken as its specific object." City, empire, Church, national monarchy or nation-state, and modern state are the principal forms that he examines. The book discusses Manent's thinking on each form in turn together with the tensions that propel the changes or motion in political form that Manent sees as driving and revealing the course of European political development. Using the work of Alasdair MacIntyre, Russell Hittinger, Étienne Gilson, Robert Sokolowski, and Francis Slade, the book evaluates Manent's insights into the modern state and political condition, which he judges to be exhausted, as well as his call for the preservation of the form of the "nation marked by Christianity."
