Society as a department store : critical reflections on the liberal state / Ryszard Legutko.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Legutko, Ryszard, 1949-

Series:

Religion, politics, and society in the new millennium

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Liberalism.

Physical Description:

v, 141 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Md. : Lexington Books, [2002]

Summary:

In Society as a Department Store Ryszard Legutko wrestles with the emancipatory ideology promulgated by postmodernists, libertarians, and liberal thinkers. Legutko argues that modern Western liberals have embraced a revolutionary ethic; they have turned their backs on their own cultural heritage, and used its political and ideological apparatus to destroy classical metaphysics and epistemology. The book considers the paradoxical implications of this state of affairs for Eastern European intellectuals arguing that, with the triumph of liberalism over communism, these intellectuals feel compelled to digest an ideology that shares many elements with the oppressive system from which they just liberated themselves. Based on hubris rather than genuine humane concerns, Legutko mourns not simply the loss of faith in classical Western culture, but the way in which that loss is becoming a central point of identity.

Contents:

Society as a department store

The trouble with toleration

Plato's two democracies

On postmodern liberal conservatism

Was Hayek an instrumentalist?

The free market in a republic

On communist illusion

Intellectuals and communism

Sir Isaiah Berlin-a naïve liberal.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

0739103717

OCLC:

49421577