Modernity on Endless Trial
Kolakowski ( The Presence of Myth ) urges caution in embracing the modern. For example, in Marxism, presumed by many to be a scientific, modernist creed, he sees "the same yearning after the archaic community" that drove Nazism. These stimulating, deeply learned essays by a University of Chicago philosopher grapple with the pitfalls of both ideological and religious systems, and the capacity of the open society to destroy itself. "Conservative," "liberal" and "socialist" are no longer mutually exclusive political positions, argues Kolakowski. Perceiving an innate human need for religion, he ponders: "To reject the sacred is also to reject the idea of evil." Along with essays on the exile as outsider, self-deceptions of intellectuals and the Christian roots of modern humanism, there are droll spoofs of philosophy ("The General Theory of Not-Gardening") and of historical scholarship ("Emperor Kennedy Legend").Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.