Politics without Reason The Perfect World and the Liberal Ideal
Politics without Reason explores the roots of contemporary hostility toward liberalism. The thesis of the book is that ambivalence about the self and about desire as an expression of the self fosters the intense animosity we observe directed toward the li
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Previous Publications Welfare, Right and the State: A Framework for Thinking Poverty, Work and Freedom: Political Economy and the Moral Order, with S. Abu Rizvi Attack on Government: Fear, Distrust and Hatred in Public Life Normative Political Economy: Subjective Freedom, the Market, and the State Subjectivity in Political Economy: Essays on Wanting and Choosing Self-Seeking and the Pursuit of Justice Wealth and Freedom Theories of Political Economy, with James Caporaso Needs, Rights and the Market Economic Theory II: The System of Economic Relations as a Whole Economic Theory I: The Elementary Relations of Economic Life Economic Studies: Contributions to the Critique of Economic Theory
Politics without Reason The Perfect World and the Liberal Ideal
David P. Levine
POLITICS WITHOUT REASON
Copyright © David P. Levine, 2008.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2008 All rights reserved. First published in 2008 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the US—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-37179-2 978-0-230-61551-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230615519 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Levine, David P. Politics without reason : the perfect world and the liberal ideal / David P. Levine. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0 –230 –60377–7 1. Liberalism—Philosophy. 2. Political science—Philosophy. 3. United States—Politics and government—1989—Philosophy. I. Title. JC574.L48 2008 320.51—dc22
2008010846
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: October 2008 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
One of the most deeply rooted traits of the modern soul is doubt of the good, the smile of superiority and mockery, the passion for losing one’s innocence. Pierre Manent
Contents
Preface
ix
Part I 1
Introduction
3
2 Reason, Desire, and the Self
13
Part II 3 The Flight from Reason
39
4 Family Values
57
5
Moral Renewal
79
6
Deception
97
Part III 7
Desire without Limit
115
8 The Ultimate Fulfillment
133
9 Greed, Morality, and Corruption
151
10
Corporate Corruption
169
Part IV 11 An Imperfect World
189
Notes
193
References
197
Index
203
Preface
S
ome years ago, I attended a conference at which the keynote speaker proudly announced that she had spent her life “bashing liberalism,” by which she had in mind so far as I could tell the idea that the individual conceived separately from the group ought to form the normative
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