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Title: Philosophy and Real Politics
Author: Raymond Geuss
Narrator: John Lescault
Format: Unabridged
Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins
Language: English
Release date: 07-16-10
Publisher: University Press Audiobooks
Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 13 votes
Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy
Publisher's Summary:
Many contemporary political thinkers are gripped by the belief that their task is to develop an ideal theory of rights or justice for guiding and judging political actions. But in Philosophy and Real Politics, Raymond Geuss argues that philosophers should first try to understand why real political actors behave as they actually do. Far from being applied ethics, politics is a skill that allows people to survive and persue their goals. To understand politics is to understand the powers, motives, and concepts that people have and that shape how they deal with the problems they face in their particular historical situations.
Philosophy and Real Politics both outlines a historically oriented, realistic political philosophy and criticizes liberal political philosophies based on abstract conceptions of rights and justice. The book is a trenchant critique of established ways of thought and a provocative call for change. The book is published by Princeton University Press.
Critic Reviews:
"A discipline-altering book." (London Review of Books)
"This grand text is an intellectual breath of fresh air." (Cornel West, Princeton University)
"Philosophy and Real Politics is an impressive and provocative essay on contemporary Anglo-American political philosophy theory." (Law and Politics Book Review)
Members Reviews:
What's Political about Political Philosophy?
Spoiler warning! Hereâs how Geuss concludes a section of this delightfully belligerent tract, which, more than anything I might write, ought to impart a flavour of whatâs within: "The often noted absence in Rawls of any theory about how his ideal demands are to be implemented is not a tiny mole that serves as a beauty spot to set off the radiance of the rest of the face, but the epidermal sign of a lethal tumourâ This is not a criticism of some individual aspect of Rawlsâs theory, but a basic repudiation of his whole way of approaching the subject of political philosophy.â Boom. And, on a well known line in Robert Nozickâs Anarchy, State, and Utopia: "He then allows that bald statement to lie flapping and gasping for breath like a large, moribund fish on the deck of a trawler, with no further analysis or discussion, and proceeds to draw consequences from it.â Pow.
Itâs unfair, perhaps, that Iâve just quoted two of among the most fun lines laying about Geussâs Philosophy and Real Politics to characterise the book, but itâs hard not to when theyâre just so deliciously severe. Still, itâs not all strum und dang, and beneath the invective lie some incredibly important and rather serious points regarding the state of political philosophy today. As the first quote might give away, one of the major thrusts of the book at work here is a âOK, but how exactly is that going to work in real life?â kinda of deal. Hence: Philosophy (on the one hand), and Real Politics (on the other).