Totalitarianism and the Modern Conception of Politics
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: January 11, 2000
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 302
ISBN-13: 9780300071801
Subjects: Political ideologies; Political science & theory; Political structures: totalitarianism & dictatorship; Liberalism; Political Philosophy; Political Science; Philosophy; Politics/International Relations; General; Political; Philosophy / Political; Totalitarianism
Description: "Halberstam argues that neither liberalism nor totalitarianism can be understood without the other. Liberalism reflects the modern conception of politics: a vision of society as a human construct answering to an unprecedented valorization of freedom. The liberal attempt to emancipate politics from culture, however, risks a loss of shared meaning that totalitarianism promises to repair. The author thus reveals how the idea of totalitarianism embodies truths and contradictions about liberalism itself.

The philosophical heart of the book is a critical development of Immanuel Kant's theory of reflective, aesthetic judgment, exposing the limits of reason and taking up what Hannah Arendt's unfinished work suggests. This rich study in the history of modern political thought from Hobbes through Marx to the present culminates with a new and surprising interpretation of Arendt's theory of totalitarianism."--BOOK JACKET.