Liberalism (Concepts in the Social Sciences)

by JohnGray (Author), JohnGray (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1986

  $5.46

• Used

  Paperback
  1995

  $5.16

  Since the publication in 1986 of the first edition of Liberalism , both the world and the author's views have changed significantly. In this second edition, John Gray argues that, whereas liberalism was the political theory of modernity, it is ill-equipped to cope with the dilemmas of the postmodern condition. Developments in philosophy have undermined the attempts of liberal theorists to give liberal institutions a universal foundation in reason, while developments in political life have overturned the Enlightenment philosophy of history on which liberal theory depends. The liberal project - the project of stating universal principles which persons and communities with divergent conceptions of the good and differing views of the world can accept as framing terms of peaceful coexistence - has foundered. The task now, as Gray sees it, is to develop a pluralist political theory, in which the liberal problem of finding a modus vivendi among rival communities and worldviews is solved in postliberal terms.