Search results for ""Author Alan Ryan""

The Making of Modern Liberalism is a deep and wide-ranging exploration of the origins and nature of liberalism from the Enlightenment through its triumphs and setbacks in the twentieth century and beyond. The book is the fruit of the more than four decades during which Alan Ryan, one of the world's leading political thinkers, reflected on the past of the liberal tradition--and worried about its future. This is essential reading for anyone interested in political theory or the history of liberalism.

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In On Machiavelli: The Search for Glory, Alan Ryan illuminates the political and philosophical complexities of the often-reviled godfather of realpolitik. Thought by some to be the founder of Italian nationalism, regarded by others to be a reviver of the Roman Republic as a model for the modern Western world, Machiavelli remains a contentious figure. Often outraging popular opinion with his insistence on the amoral nature of power, Machiavelli eschewed the world as it ought to be in favor of a forthright appraisal of the one that is. Perhaps more than any other thinker, Machiavelli has suffered from being taken out of context, and Ryan places him squarely within his own time and the politics of a Renaissance Italy riven by near-constant warfare among rival city-states and the papacy. A well-educated son of Florence, Machiavelli was originally in charge of the Florentine Republic’s militia, but in 1512 the city fell to papal forces led by Cardinal Giovanni de Medici, who thus restored the Medici family to power. Machiavelli was accused of conspiracy, imprisoned, tortured, and eventually exiled from his beloved Florence, and it was during this period that he produced his most famous works. While attempting to ingratiate himself to the Medicis, the historically minded Machiavelli looked to the imperial ambitions and past glories of the Roman Republic as a contrast to the perceived failures of his contemporaries. For Machiavelli, the hunger for power and glory was inextricable from human nature, and any serious attempt to rule must take this into account. In his revolutionary The Prince and Discourses—both excerpted here—Machiavelli created the first truly modern analysis of power.

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The Making of Modern Liberalism is a deep and wide-ranging exploration of the origins and nature of liberalism from the Enlightenment through its triumphs and setbacks in the twentieth century and beyond. The book is the fruit of the more than four decades during which Alan Ryan, one of the world's leading political thinkers, reflected on the past of the liberal tradition--and worried about its future. This is essential reading for anyone interested in political theory or the history of liberalism.

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Augustine’s political philosophy is pregnant with arguments that racked not only Christian Europe but also much of the modern world. In On Augustine Alan Ryan carefully lays out the complicated political, philosophical and religious context of Augustine and traces the history of his impact on Western thought both within and beyond the Christian tradition.

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In On Aristotle, Alan Ryan examines Plato’s most famous student and sharpest critic. Aristotle was the first thinker to posit that a society should be ruled by laws and not men. His strongly empirical cast of mind was brought to bear on a stunning range of subjects and the resulting system dominated European thought from the thirteenth to seventeenth centuries. Aristotle’s meticulous thinking on the nature of human affairs, ethics, politics, citizenship and virtue in a civil society remains as vital today as it was in his own time. Including key sections from Nicomachean Ethics and Politics, Aristotle’s only surviving works, with a new introduction by Alan Ryan and a chronology of the philosopher’s life and works, On Aristotle contextualises Aristotle’s views of government and the political community within the Ancient World.

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In Leviathan, Hobbes created the idea of a “social contract” and set out to explicate a doctrine for the foundation of states and legitimate forms of government. In On Hobbes, Ryan explains how he created the secular conception of the state and politics in one of the first truly modern works of political philosophy. Ryan explicates how current notions of individual rights, sovereignty, representative government and almost all liberal political theory find their foundation in Hobbes.

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In On Aristotle: Saving Politics from Philosophy, Alan Ryan examines Plato's most famous student and sharpest critic, whose writing has helped shape over two millennia of Western philosophy, science, and religion. The first thinker to posit that a society should be ruled by laws and not men, Aristotle was born in Stagira, Macedon, in 384 BCE. He would go on to join Plato's Academy and eventually become tutor to Alexander the Great. During his lifetime he would see the revival of Athens following its destruction in the Peloponnesian War, before the ultimate extinction of its radical form of democracy after the Macedonian conquest. Aristotle’s strongly empirical cast of mind was brought to bear on a stunning range of subjects, from rhetoric to physics, from the history of political institutions and mathematics to zoology and botany. The resulting system dominated European thought from the thirteenth to seventeenth centuries. In Nicomachean Ethics and Politics—both excerpted here—Aristotle attempted to delineate the ideal virtues of a both public and private life as well as critique the utopian antipolitics of his former teacher, Plato. For Aristotle, life in a polis was the natural state of man and provided the greatest opportunity for human beings to fulfill their potential. Unlike his scientific theories, which would eventually be displaced by Galileo, Newton, and Darwin, Aristotle’s meticulous thinking on the nature of human affairs, ethics, politics, citizenship, and virtue in a civil society remains as vital today as it was in his own time.

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In On Tocqueville, Alan Ryan brilliantly illuminates the observations of the French philosopher who first journeyed to the United States in 1831 and went on to catalogue the unique features of the American social contract. Tocqueville’s prescient analyses of American life remain as relevant today as when they were first written. On Tocqueville features a chronology, biography and excerpts from Tocqueville’s major works.

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For his insistence on the amoral character of successful government, Machiavelli remains a contentious figure. Often reviled as a teacher of evil, Machiavelli’s influence on the modern state is explored in this book. In On Machiavelli, Alan Ryan illuminates the political and philosophical complexities of the godfather of realpolitik. Often outraging popular opinion, Machiavelli eschewed the world as it ought to be in favour of a forthright appraisal of the one that is. Thought by some to be the founder of Italian nationalism, regarded by others to be a reviver of the Roman Republic, Machiavelli has suffered from being taken out of context. Placing him squareley in his own time, this essential, comprehensive and accessible guide to Machiavelli’s life and works includes a new introduction by Ryan.

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In On Tocqueville, Alan Ryan brilliantly illuminates the observations of the French philosopher who first journeyed to the United States in 1831 and went on to catalogue the unique features of the American social contract. Tocqueville’s prescient analyses of American life remain as relevant today as when they were first written. On Tocqueville features a chronology, biography and excerpts from Tocqueville’s major works.

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In On Marx, Alan Ryan examines Marx’s writing, not within the framework of Lenin or Tolstoy but within its own time, tracing its Hegelian roots and providing a sterling explication and critique of his theories of alienation, class struggle and revolution. This volume provides the clearest, most accessible introduction to Marx’s theories in recent years. On Marx features a chronology, biography and excerpts from Marx’s major works.

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A magisterial, one-volume history of political thought from Herodotus to the present, Ancient Athens to modern democracy - from author and professor Alan RyanThis is a book about the answers that historians, philosophers, theologians, practising politicians and would-be revolutionaries have given to one question: how should human beings best govern themselves? Almost every modern government claims to be democratic; but is democracy really the best way of organising our political life? Can we manage our own affairs at all? Should we even try? In the west, do we actually live in democracies? In this extraordinary book Alan Ryan engages with the great thinkers of the past to show us how vividly their ideas speak to us in today's uncertain world.ALAN RYAN was born in London in 1940 and taught for many years at Oxford, where he was a Fellow of New College and Reader in Politics. He was Professor of Politics at Princeton from 1988 to 1996, when he returned to Oxford to become Warden of New College and Professor of Political Theory until his retirement in 2009. His previous books include The Philosophy of John Stuart Mill, Bertrand Russell: A Political Life and John Dewey and the High Tide of American Liberalism. He is a Fellow of the British Academy.Reviews of On Politics:'An engaging and smart survey of major political thinkers ... Through Ryan [they] speak directly to the present' Mark Mazower, Prospect'Ryan's book is a magnificent piece of work, clear (even when the ideas he's exploring are obscure) and engaging (even when the theory in the original is forbidding) ... anyone remotely interested in political theory will profit from reading or dipping into Ryan's On Politics, whether this is their first acquaintance with the canon of political theory or whether they have been "Hobbing and Locking" for decades ... It's a remarkable experience' Jeremy Waldron, New York Review of Books'Ambitiously and elegantly covers two and a half millennia of political thinking ... despite covering huge intellectual terrain, [On Politics] a delight both when it explores detail and also when it draws conclusions of a broader perspective' Justin Champion, BBC History Magazine'On Politics is crammed with smart observations and wise advice' John Keane, Financial Times'An impressive achievement' Economist

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A prodigiously brilliant thinker who sharply challenged the beliefs of his age, the political and social radical John Stuart Mill was the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century. Regarded as one of the sacred texts of liberalism, his great work On Liberty argues lucidly that any democracy risks becoming a 'tyranny of opinion' in which minority views are suppressed if they do not conform with those of the majority. Written in the same period as On Liberty, shortly after the death of Mill's beloved wife and fellow-thinker Harriet, The Subjection of Women stresses the importance of equality for the sexes. Together, the works provide a fascinating testimony to the hopes and anxieties of mid-Victorian England, and offer a compelling consideration of what it truly means to be free.

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Isaiah Berlin's intellectual biography of Karl Marx has long been recognized as one of the best concise accounts of the life and thought of the man who had, in Berlin's words, a more "direct, deliberate, and powerful" influence on mankind than any other nineteenth-century thinker. A brilliantly lucid work of synthesis and exposition, the book introduces Marx's ideas and sets them in their context, explains why they were revolutionary in political and intellectual terms, and paints a memorable portrait of Marx's dramatic life and outsized personality. Berlin takes readers through Marx's years of adolescent rebellion and post-university communist agitation, the personal high point of the 1848 revolutions, and his later years of exile, political frustration, and intellectual effort. Critical yet sympathetic, Berlin's account illuminates a life without reproducing a legend. New features of this thoroughly revised edition include references for Berlin's quotations and allusions, Terrell Carver's assessment of the distinctiveness of Berlin's book, and a revised guide to further reading.

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One of the most important nineteenth-century schools of thought, Utilitarianism propounds the view that the value or rightness of an action rests in how well it promotes the welfare of those affected by it, aiming for 'the greatest happiness of the greatest number'. Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) was the movement's founder, as much a social reformer as a philosopher. His greatest interpreter, John Stuart Mill (1806-73), set out to humanize Bentham's pragmatic Utilitarianism by balancing the claims of reason and the imagination, individuality and social well-being in essays such as 'Bentham', 'Coleridge' and, above all, Utilitarianism. The works by Bentham and Mill collected in this volume show the creation and development of a system of ethics that has had an enduring influence on moral philosophy and legislative policy.

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