A compelling and deeply felt exploration and defense of
liberalism: what it actually is, why it is relevant today, and how
it can help our society chart a forward course.
The Future of Liberalism represents the culmination of four
decades of thinking and writing about contemporary politics by Alan
Wolfe, one of America’s leading scholars, hailed by one critic as
“one of liberalism’s last and most loyal sons.” Wolfe mines the
bedrock of the liberal tradition, explaining how Immanuel Kant,
John Stuart Mill, John Dewey, and other celebrated minds helped
shape liberalism’s central philosophy. Wolfe also examines those
who have challenged liberalism since its inception, from
Jean-Jacques Rousseau to modern conservatives, religious
fundamentalists, and evolutionary theorists such as Richard
Dawkins.
Drawing on both the inspiration and insights of seminal works
such as John Locke’s Second Treatise on Government, Adam Smith’s
Theory of Moral Sentiments, Kant’s essay “What is Enlightenment?,”
and Mill’s On Liberty and The Subjection of Women, Wolfe
ambitiously sets out to define what it truly means to be a liberal.
He analyzes and applauds liberalism’s capacious conception of human
nature, belief that people outweigh ideology, passion for social
justice, faith in reason and intellectual openness, and respect for
individualism. And we see how the liberal tradition can influence
and illuminate contemporary debates on immigration, abortion,
executive power, religious freedom, and free speech.
But Wolfe also makes it clear that before liberalism can be
successfully applied to today’s problems, it needs to be recovered,
understood, and embraced—not just by Americans but by all modern
people—as the most beneficial way to live in our complex modern
world. The Future of Liberalism is a crucial, enlightening, and
immensely rewarding step in that direction.
關於作者:
Alan Wolfe is a professor of political
science and director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American
Public Life at Boston College. A contributing editor of The New
Republic, The Wilson Quarterly, CommonWealth, and In
Character, Professor Wolfe also frequently writes for
Commonweal, The New York Times, Harper’s, The Atlantic
Monthly, and The Washington Post. He lives in Brookline,
Massachusetts.
目錄:
INTRODUCTION TO THE VINTAGE EDITION
1 The Most Appropriate Political Philosophy for Our
Times
2 In Praise of Artifice
3 Equality''s Inevitability
4 Why Good Poetry Makes Bad Politics
5 Mr. Schmitt Goes to Washington
6 How Liberals Should Think About Religion
7 The Open Soctety and Its Friends
8 Why Conservatives Can''t Govern
9 Liberalism''s Promise
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NOTES
INDEX