Description
Book SynopsisBrings together some works by creative philosophers. Seeking to expand the scope of contemporary moral and political philosophy, this book presents essays bound by a shared skepticism about a particular way of thinking about what is important in human life. It explores various human phenomena - including poetry, art, and religion.
Trade Review"No one among contemporary moral and political philosophers writes better essays than Raymond Geuss. His prose is crisp, elegant, and lucid. His arguments are to the point. And, by inviting us to reconsider what we have hitherto taken for granted, he puts in question not just this or that particular philosophical thesis, but some of the larger projects in which we are engaged. Often enough Geuss does this with remarkable economy, provoking us into first making his questions our own and then discovering how difficult it is to answer them."--Alasdair MacIntyre, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews "Absorbing... Fourteen essays of uncommon interest... [They] exhibit a striking combination of careful analysis and utter iconoclasm... Despite Geuss's justified claim to be on the outside looking in, he would be a wonderful guide for all those on the inside who want to come out."--George Warnke, Ethics
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Liberalism and Its Discontents 11 Chapter 2: Neither History nor Praxis 29 Chapter 3: Outside Ethics 40 Chapter 4: Freedom as an Ideal 67 Chapter 5: Virtue and the Good Life 78 Chapter 6: Happiness and Politics 97 Chapter 7: Suffering and Knowledge in Adorno 111 Chapter 8: On the Usefulness and Uselessness of Religious Illusions 131 Chapter 9: Genealogy as Critique 153 Chapter 10: Art and Criticism in Adorno's Aesthetics 161 Chapter 11: Poetry and Knowledge 184 Chapter 12: Plato, Romanticism, and Thereafter 206 Chapter 13: Thucydides, Nietzsche, and Williams 219 Chapter 14: Adorno's Gaps 234 Index 249
