Liberalisms Routledge Revivals

Liberalisms, a work first published in 1989, provides a coherent and comprehensive analytical guide to liberal thinking over the past century and considers the dominance of liberal thought in Anglo-American political philosophy over the past 20 years. John Gray assesses the work of all the major liberal political philosophers including J. S. Mill, Herbert Spencer, Karl Popper, F. A Hayek, John Rawls and Robert Nozick, and explores their mutual connections and differences.

First published in 1938, these lectures argue that liberality is the foundation of civilization. According to Gilbert Murray, civilization provides the surplus of security, leisure and wealth that makes liberality possible; a failure of liberality is the surest test of the failure of a civilization. This is a fascinating reissue that will be of great value to students with an interest in political philosophy and the foundations of liberal society.

First published in 1991, this Routledge Revival reissues the first book to examine the ideals and arguments produced by the intellectual traditions of both conservatism and classical liberalism.

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: states of consciousness in which we have been supposed to apprehend present reality, we have to inquire into their character as mental states, and their value as elements of knowledge. On the words mental state we must briefly repeat the caution given in the introductory chapter. The true mental state of the adult man is complex to the point of indefiniteness. We do not find apprehension succeeded by judgment, judgment by feeling, feeling by an act of will, and so on. If we did, our problem would be immensely simplified. But, in fact, every one of these terms represents an abstraction from the normal state of consciousness. Take what seems a purely intellectual state ?a process of reasoning such as that by which we follow a geometrical demonstration. The actual consciousness of the reasoner is more or less absorbed in this subject, as the case may be. If he is an unwilling schoolboy, his wandering attention mingles ideas of escape and recreation with his geometrical constructions and syllogisms; and even the half of his attention which is devoted to the argument is coloured and qualified by the sense of effort with which he follows it. If he is a budding mathematician, his whole soul is concentrated on the work before him; but in this very concentration there is an effort and an interest involved which bring elements from the emotional and volitional side of his nature into play. Pure thought, pure will, pure feeling are not names of concrete mental states. This or that state may approximate more or less closely to the one type or the other; but how far this approximation may go, and whether it ever reaches completeness, it would be hard to say. The question is one for psychologists. All that we have to remark is, that when, for the purposes of our logical analysis, we spea...

Liberalisms, a work first published in 1989, provides a coherent and comprehensive analytical guide to liberal thinking over the past century and considers the dominance of liberal thought in Anglo-American political philosophy over the past 20 years. John Gray assesses the work of all the major liberal political philosophers including J. S. Mill, Herbert Spencer, Karl Popper, F. A Hayek, John Rawls and Robert Nozick, and explores their mutual connections and differences.

What does liberal mean? There can be no agreement, it seems. Still, if liberals, left-liberals and right-liberals alike, share something in common, it's the fundamental belief in liberty. Liberalism is unlike any other ideology, in that it does not seek to use government to social engineer a certain type of society. At the heart of liberalism, I believe, is the value that all people are morally equal, i.e. they have an equal right to be moral actors. And in the clear absence of a morally perfect person anywhere in the world, this is simply the only moral and logical position to take. Liberals can be personally conservative, progressive or radical, but they do not use the government to engineer a conservative, progressive or radical society. With the great confusion surrounding what liberalism is nowadays, and the lack of a firm and clear meaning of what this ideology is among the general public, it is unsurprising that liberalism, even with its great cannon including many great statements and thinkers going all the way back to Mills and Locke, is not exactly the most appealing idea to today's young intellectuals. And yet, this is a sad situation, one that does not bode well for our future. Liberalism is the very embodiment of the enlightenment, and the great foundation on which society can achieve a state of peace and rational progress. This book will demonstrate why liberalism remains the best political ideology, for both the culturally conservative and progressive alike. Moreover, liberalism is also a cultural attitude, one where freedom of speech, respect of each other’s moral consciences, and rational debate are encouraged. A revival of liberalism would also mean a revival of these values, all important attributes of an adaptive, healthy, forward-looking society. This book will discuss ways in which liberalism can be reinvigorated for modern and future society.

First published in 1990. Liberalism and the Good is a collection of critical essays by an inter-disciplinary group of American and English scholars that seeks to address the long-standing problem of the good in light of the most recent developments in liberal theory. With contributions from both liberal apologists and critics who pursue arguments informed by sources as disparate as Nietzsche and Aristotle, it breaks fresh ground in a number of different directions and offers proposals for the future of the discussion.