000 05058cam a2200253 i 4500
005 20230901145708.0
008 230821s2022 xxu b 001 0 eng
020 _a9780691220932
_q
040 _aDLC
_beng
_cDLC
_erda
_dDLC
050 1 4 _aJC574
_b.C499 2021
100 1 _aCherniss, Joshua L.
_d1979-
_eauthor.
245 1 0 _aLiberalism in dark times :
_bthe liberal ethos in the twentieth century /
_cJoshua L. Cherniss.
260 _aPrinceton ;
_aOxford :
_bPrinceton University Press,
_ccopyright 2021.
300 _axvi, 305, [2] strony ;
_c24 cm.
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _aunmediated
_bn
_2rdamedia
338 _avolume
_bnc
_2rdacarrier
504 _aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
505 0 _aIntroduction : the vices of virtue : liberalism and the problem of ruthlessness -- "Squeamishness is the crime" : ruthlessness, ethos, and the critique of liberalism -- Between tragedy and utopia : Weber and Lukács on ethics and politics -- A just man : Albert Camus and the search for a decent heroism -- The "morality of prudence" and the fertility of doubt : Raymond Aron's defense of a "realist" liberalism -- Against cynicism and sentimentality : Reinhold Niebuhr's chastened liberal realism -- "The courage of... our doubts and uncertainties" : Isaiah Berlin, ethical moderation, and liberal ethos -- Conclusion : good characters for good liberals? : ethos and the reconstruction of liberalism.
520 _a"Today, liberals face a predicament: how to defend liberal principles, when adherence to them seems to constitute a fatal disadvantage against unprincipled opponents. The challenge is not new. In the early years of the twentieth century, liberalism was attacked, by critics on both the right and, especially, the left for being hypocritical, naïve, irresponsible, and impotent. It couldn't, for example (anti-liberalists thought), address the acute inequality of imperial rule, racial segregation, and socio-economic poverty. These issues of social justice it was claimed by critics required a politics marked by an uncompromising commitment to ultimate ends, and an unrelenting use of power. Faced with such sentiments and the practical successes of anti-liberal ideologies (i.e. Fascism, Nazism, and Communism) liberals felt pressure to silence their scruples and doubts, and embrace the confidence, ruthlessness, and intransigence exhibited by their opponents. But doing so seemed tantamount to abandoning liberal hopes for, and commitments to, human freedom and all they valued in the first place. In Liberalism for Dark Times, Cherniss tells the story of the liberal response to this challenge in the twentieth century. Through a close study of five leading intellectuals engaged in these debates-Max Weber, Raymond Aron, Albert Camus, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Isaiah Berlin-Cherniss reconstructs a distinctive, neglected strand of liberal thought. This strand defines and defends liberalism as a political ethos: a complex of dispositions, temperament, and sensibility and style-which include skepticism; openness to experience; and careful, discriminating judgment-that shape how individuals make choices, meet challenges, understand and pursue possibilities, and conduct themselves toward others in the course of political struggle. In reconstructing the history of, what he calls, a tempered liberalism, and formulating it as a distinctive political perspective, Cherniss offers an alternative to the prevalent ways of thinking about both, liberalism's history and the intellectual resources available to it today"--
520 _a"A timely defense of liberalism that draws vital lessons from its greatest midcentury proponents. Today, liberalism faces threats from across the political spectrum. While right-wing populists and leftist purists righteously violate liberal norms, theorists of liberalism seem to have little to say. In Liberalism in Dark Times, Joshua Cherniss issues a rousing defense of the liberal tradition, drawing on a neglected strand of liberal thought.Assaults on liberalism-a political order characterized by limits on political power and respect for individual rights-are nothing new. Early in the twentieth century, democracy was under attack around the world, with one country after another succumbing to dictatorship. While many intellectuals dismissed liberalism as outdated, unrealistic, or unworthy, a handful of writers defended and reinvigorated the liberal ideal, including Max Weber, Raymond Aron, Albert Camus, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Isaiah Berlin-each of whom is given a compelling new assessment here.Building on the work of these thinkers, Cherniss urges us to imagine liberalism not as a set of policies but as a temperament or disposition-one marked by openness to complexity, willingness to acknowledge uncertainty, tolerance for difference, and resistance to ruthlessness. In the face of rising political fanaticism, he persuasively argues for the continuing importance of this liberal ethos"--
920 _a978-0-691-22093-2
942 _2lcc
_cBK
999 _c19720
_d19720