philosophy polisci

Hardcover. Cambridge MA, Belknap Press / Harvard University Press, 1st, 1979, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket, 896 pages. This masterly study has a grand sweep. It ranges over centuries, with a long look backward over several millennia. Yet the history it unfolds is primarily the story of individuals: thinkers and dreamers who envisaged an ideal social order and described it persuasively, leaving a mark on their own and later times. The roster of utopians includes men of all stripes in different countries and eras--figures as disparate as More and Fourier, the Marquis de Sade and Edward Bellamy, Rousseau and Marx. Fascinating character studies of the major figures are among the delights of the book. 1980 National Book Award winner. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Softcover. Albany, State University of New York , 1st thus, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 332 pages. Bayle, arguably the primary intellectual predecessor to the Enlightenment, sought in this text to undermine the influence of "superstition" in politics, particularly the superstition brought about by religious beliefs, and it is here that he first made his suggestion that a decent society of atheists is possible in principle. Translator Robert Bartlett provides extensive notes and an introduction to Bayle, his influence, and the intricacies of his thinking.

Softcover. Lanham MD, Rowman & Littlefield , 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 349 pages. In Vergil's Empire, Eve Adler offers an exciting new interpretation of the political thought of Vergil's Aeneid. Adler argues that in this epic poem, Vergil presents the theoretical foundations of a new political order, one that resolves the conflict between scientific enlightenment and ancestral religion that permeated the ancient world. The work concentrates on Vergil's response to the physics, psychology, and political implications of Lucretius' Epicurean doctrine expressed in De Rerum Natura. Proceeding by a close analysis of the Aeneid, Adler examines Vergil's critique of Carthage as a model of universal enlightenment, his positive doctrine of Rome as a model of universal religion, and his criticism of the heroism of Achilles, Odysseus, and Epicurus in favor of the heroism of Aeneas. Beautifully written and clearly argued, Vergil's Empire will be of great value to all interested in the classical world. Clean copy.

Softcover. Canada, Penguin Books, reprint, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 640 pages. The Western world is full of paradoxes. We talk endlessly of individual freedom, yet we've never been under more pressure to conform. Our business leaders describe themselves as capitalists, yet most are corporate employees and financial speculators. We call our governments democracies, yet few of us participate in politics. We complain about invasive government, yet our legal, educational, financial, social, cultural and legislative systems are deteriorating. All these problems, John Ralston Saul argues, are largely the result of our blind faith in the value of reason. Over the past 400 years, our "rational elites" have turned the modern West into a vast, incomprehensible, directionless machine, run by process-minded experts--"Voltaire's bastards"--whose cult of scientific management is empty of both sense and morality. Whether in politics, art, business, the military, entertain-ment, science, finance, academia or journalism, these experts share the same outlook and methods. The result, Saul maintains, is a civilization of immense technological power whose ordinary citizens are increasingly excluded from the decision-making process.In this wide-ranging anatomy of modern society and its origins--whose "pages explode with insight, style and intellectual rigor" (Camille Paglia, The Washington Post)--Saul presents a shattering critique of the political, economic and cultural estab-lishments of the West. Clean copy.

Softcover. UK, Cambridge University Press, reprint, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 390 pages. A selection of Max Weber's most important political writings. Weber examines constitutional questions, problems of democracy, socialism, and economic policy, always with careful attention to the moral claims of political antagonists and their intellectual basis. The texts show his power as an analyst of politics and make clear that a serious consequentialist understanding of political life requires subtlety and historical understanding. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Peter H. Wyden, 1st, 1973, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: Fair, Hardcover in a dust jacket that has a water stain to rear panel. Mild ripple to rear cloth, but book, text pages not affected. There is some foxing/tanning to top edge of text block. No markings. Walter Kaufmann in defining the conflicts in Germany that put Hitler in power, are very similar to our challenges today. A good read for people who want to understand underlying impulses in our culture.