Enlightenment's Wake: Politics and Culture at the Close of the Modern Age / Edition 1

by John Gray (2), Gray John

Overview

Now in paperback, Enlightenment's Wake stakes out the elements of John Gray's new position. He argues that all schools of contemporary political thought are variations on the Enlightenment Project - the Westernizing project of a universal civilization - and that this Enlightenment Project has proved self-undermining and is now exhausted. Fresh thought is needed on the dilemmas of the late modern age.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415124751
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/19/1995
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

John Gray is a Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. He has been visiting professor at Harvard, Yale and Tulane universities.

Table of Contents

Preface Acknowledgements 1.Against the New Liberalism 2.Notes Towards a Definition of the Political Thought of Tlon 3.Toleration: a Postliberal Perspective 4.Western Illusion, Enlightenment and the Fall of the Soviet State 5.The Postcommunist Societies in Transition 6.Agonistic Liberalism 7.The Undoing of Conservatism 8.After the New 10.Enlightenment's Wake Notes Index

Editorial Reviews

For readers familiar with Gray's previous works it may come as a surprise that he rejects conservatism in this latest critique, as well as liberalism, though further developing the seeds of a cooperative "green" approach to social politics. Gray's arguments rest in the slaying of Enlightenment thinking that continues to shape contemporary thought on the right and left, and which, he claims, undermines new, necessary alternatives. Gray advocates a post post-modern attitude, moving from theoretical criticism to implementation of a decentralized cultural cooperation and rejection of the traditional heritage of Western cultural imperialism as "the project of a universal civilization." Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

'Gray is one of our best social and political theorists... This powerful and radical work opens as many doors as it closes.' - New Statesman

'Gray is a clever and energetic political theorist in the analytical mode. He is also dauntingly well-read and up-to-date.' - Guardian

From the Publisher