A01=Raymond Geuss
Ambiguity
Anachronism
Antinomy
Aphorism
Author_Raymond Geuss
Bourgeoisie
Cambridge University Press
Category=JPA
Category=QDTS
Contemporary society
Contingency (philosophy)
Counter-Reformation
Critical theory
Criticism
Critique
Diplomacy
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eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Ethnocentrism
Etymology
Existentialism
Form of life (philosophy)
Good and evil
Hugo Grotius
Ideology
Institution
Intellectual history
International relations
Liberalism
Literature
Martin Heidegger
Modern philosophy
Modernity
Morality
Multiculturalism
Necessary Illusions
Phenomenon
Philology
Philosopher
Philosophical Investigations
Philosophical progress
Philosophy
Political class
Political correctness
Political criticism
Political philosophy
Political science
Political spectrum
Politics
Positivism
Pragmatism
Prediction
Primitivism
Puritans
Radical criticism
Radicalism (historical)
Relativism
Religion
Result
Rhetorical question
Satire
Sentimentality
Social criticism
Subversion
Suggestion
The Other Hand
The Philosopher
Theodicy
Theory
Theory of Forms
Thought
Thucydides
Transcendental idealism
Understanding
War of aggression
Product details
- ISBN 9780691142289
- Weight: 312g
- Dimensions: 156 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 27 Dec 2009
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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In politics, utopians do not have a monopoly on imagination. Even the most conservative defenses of the status quo, Raymond Geuss argues, require imaginative acts of some kind. In this collection of recent essays, including his most overtly political writing yet, Geuss explores the role of imagination in politics, particularly how imaginative constructs interact with political reality. He uses decisions about the war in Iraq to explore the peculiar ways in which politicians can be deluded and citizens can misunderstand their leaders. He also examines critically what he sees as one of the most serious delusions of western political thinking--the idea that a human society is always best conceived as a closed system obeying fixed rules. And, in essays on Don Quixote, museums, Celan's poetry, Heidegger's brother Fritz, Richard Rorty, and bourgeois philosophy, Geuss reflects on how cultural artifacts can lead us to embrace or reject conventional assumptions about the world.
While paying particular attention to the relative political roles played by rule-following, utilitarian calculations of interest, and aspirations to lead a collective life of a certain kind, Geuss discusses a wide range of related issues, including the distance critics need from their political systems, the extent to which history can enlighten politics, and the possibility of utopian thinking in a world in which action retains its urgency.
Raymond Geuss teaches philosophy at the University of Cambridge. His most recent books include "Philosophy and Real Politics, Outside Ethics", and "Public Goods, Private Goods" (all Princeton).
