Kooperativer Bibliotheksverbund

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Format: Online-Ressource (216 S.)

Edition: 2010

ISBN: 9781400832132

Content: In politics, utopians do not have a monopoly on imagination. Even the most conservative defenses of the status quo, Raymond Geuss argues, require imaginative acts of some kind. In this collection of recent essays, including his most overtly political writing yet, Geuss explores the role of imagination in politics, particularly how imaginative constructs interact with political reality. He uses decisions about the war in Iraq to explore the peculiar ways in which politicians can be deluded and citizens can misunderstand their leaders. He also examines critically what he sees as one of the most serious delusions of western political thinking--the idea that a human society is always best conceived as a closed system obeying fixed rules. And, in essays on Don Quixote, museums, Celan's poetry, Heidegger's brother Fritz, Richard Rorty, and bourgeois philosophy, Geuss reflects on how cultural artifacts can lead us to embrace or reject conventional assumptions about the world. While paying particular attention to the relative political roles played by rule-following, utilitarian calculations of interest, and aspirations to lead a collective life of a certain kind, Geuss discusses a wide range of related issues, including the distance critics need from their political systems, the extent to which history can enlighten politics, and the possibility of utopian thinking in a world in which action retains its urgency.

Language: English

Keywords: Politisches Denken ; Imagination

DOI: 10.1515/9781400832132

URL: Volltext

URL: lizenzpflichtig

URL: Cover

URL: Cover

Author information: Geuss, Raymond 1946-

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Format: 1 online resource (216 pages) : , illustrations.

Edition: Course Book.

Edition: Electronic reproduction. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Edition: System requirements: Web browser.

Edition: Access may be restricted to users at subscribing institutions.

ISBN: 9781400832132

Content: In politics, utopians do not have a monopoly on imagination. Even the most conservative defenses of the status quo, Raymond Geuss argues, require imaginative acts of some kind. In this collection of recent essays, including his most overtly political writing yet, Geuss explores the role of imagination in politics, particularly how imaginative constructs interact with political reality. He uses decisions about the war in Iraq to explore the peculiar ways in which politicians can be deluded and citizens can misunderstand their leaders. He also examines critically what he sees as one of the most serious delusions of western political thinking--the idea that a human society is always best conceived as a closed system obeying fixed rules. And, in essays on Don Quixote, museums, Celan's poetry, Heidegger's brother Fritz, Richard Rorty, and bourgeois philosophy, Geuss reflects on how cultural artifacts can lead us to embrace or reject conventional assumptions about the world. While paying particular attention to the relative political roles played by rule-following, utilitarian calculations of interest, and aspirations to lead a collective life of a certain kind, Geuss discusses a wide range of related issues, including the distance critics need from their political systems, the extent to which history can enlighten politics, and the possibility of utopian thinking in a world in which action retains its urgency.

Note: Frontmatter -- , Contents -- , Preface -- , Acknowledgments -- , I. Political Judgment in Its Historical Context -- , II. The Politics of Managing Decline -- , III. Moralism and Realpolitik -- , IV. On the Very Idea of a Metaphysics of Right -- , V. The Actual and Another Modernity. Order and Imagination in Don Quixote -- , VI. Culture as Ideal and as Boundary -- , VII. On Museums -- , VIII. Celan’s Meridian -- , IX. Heidegger and His Brother -- , X. Richard Rorty at Princeton. Personal Recollections -- , XI. Melody as Death -- , XII. On Bourgeois Philosophy and the Concept of "Criticism" -- , Bibliography -- , Index. , In English.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1515/9781400832132

URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400832132