From Plato through the nineteenth century, the West could draw on
comprehensive political visions to guide government and society. Now,
for the first time in more than two thousand years, Tracy B. Strong
contends, we have lost our foundational supports. In the words of
Hannah Arendt, the state of political thought in the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries has left us effectively “thinking without a
banister.” Politics without Vision takes up the thought of seven
influential thinkers, each of whom attempted to construct a political
solution to this problem: Nietzsche, Weber, Freud, Lenin, Schmitt,
Heidegger, and Arendt. None of these theorists were liberals nor,
excepting possibly Arendt, were they democrats—and some might even
be said to have served as handmaidens to totalitarianism. And all to a
greater or lesser extent shared the common conviction that the
institutions and practices of liberalism are inadequate to the demands
and stresses of the present times. In examining their thought, Strong
acknowledges the political evil that some of their ideas served to
foster but argues that these were not necessarily the only paths their
explorations could have taken. By uncovering the turning points in
their thought—and the paths not taken—Strong strives to develop a
political theory that can avoid, and perhaps help explain, the
mistakes of the past while furthering the democratic impulse.
Confronting the widespread belief that political thought is on the
decline, Strong puts forth a brilliant and provocative counterargument
that in fact it has endured—without the benefit of outside support.
A compelling rendering of contemporary political theory, Politics
without Vision is sure to provoke discussion among scholars in many
fields.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780226777474
Publisert
2018
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Vendor
University of Chicago Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter