New French Thought by Mark Lilla
Since the early 1980s France has seen a remarkable flourishing of new work in political philosophy. This anthology brings into English essays by some of the best young French political thinkers writing today, including Marcel Gauchet, Pierre Manent, Luc Ferry, and Alain Renaut. The central theme of these essays is liberal democracy: its nature, its development, its problems, its fundamental legitimacy. Although these themes are familiar to American and British readers, the French approach to them - which is profoundly historical and rooted in the tradition of continental philosophy - is quite different from other approaches. Included in this collection is a series of reconsiderations of French critics of liberal society (Levi-Strauss, Foucault, Bourdieu) and of classical European liberals (Kant, Constant, Tocqueville). The continuing controversies over the nature of the modern era and the place of religion within it play a central role throughout the collection. The book includes a debate on the foundations of human rights and on the nature of a liberal political order. The concluding section presents some of the new sociological writing on modern individualism, its pleasures and its discontents. An introduction by Mark Lilla provides the historical background to the revival of French political thought about liberalism, and offers an analysis of what American and English readers might learn from it.
"After World War II, most French intellectuals dismissed liberalism and pluralism. . . Since around 1980, however, several younger philosophers have thought liberalism worthy of renewed attention, and Lilla's anthology ably presents a selection of their views. . . . a useful anthology." * Library Journal *
"In this volume, Luc Ferry, Alain Renaut, Blandine Kriegel and Stephane Rials defend human rights against the charge that "rights" are merely assertions of will or political power. . . . Another welcome feature of French liberalism today is its willingness to reflect on the actual workings of a liberal society. Here Gilles Lipovetsky, Anne Godignon, Jean-Louis Thiriet and Pierre Manent offer especially compelling insights. . . . New French Thought makes clear how much the intellectual climate in Paris has changed for the better."---Harvey Mansfield, Wall Street Journal
"As Lilla suggests in a fine introduction, French thinkers are now considering issues they have neglected for years: human rights, modern individualism, the nature of liberalism--subjects which have obsessed their British and American counterparts for years. This volume may be just the thing to start an entente cordiale between Anglophone and Continental philosophers." * The Guardian *
"This excellent volume brings together the writings of the younger generation of French writers and intellectuals . . . who for virtually the first time have accepted the legitimacy of liberal democracy as a political order." * Foreign Affairs *
"In this volume, Luc Ferry, Alain Renaut, Blandine Kriegel and Stephane Rials defend human rights against the charge that "rights" are merely assertions of will or political power. . . . Another welcome feature of French liberalism today is its willingness to reflect on the actual workings of a liberal society. Here Gilles Lipovetsky, Anne Godignon, Jean-Louis Thiriet and Pierre Manent offer especially compelling insights. . . . New French Thought makes clear how much the intellectual climate in Paris has changed for the better."---Harvey Mansfield, Wall Street Journal
"As Lilla suggests in a fine introduction, French thinkers are now considering issues they have neglected for years: human rights, modern individualism, the nature of liberalism--subjects which have obsessed their British and American counterparts for years. This volume may be just the thing to start an entente cordiale between Anglophone and Continental philosophers." * The Guardian *
"This excellent volume brings together the writings of the younger generation of French writers and intellectuals . . . who for virtually the first time have accepted the legitimacy of liberal democracy as a political order." * Foreign Affairs *
Mark Lilla is Professor of Humanities at Columbia. With New York Review Books he has published The Shipwrecked Mind: On Political Reaction (2016), The Reckless Mind: Intellectuals in Politics (2nd. ed., 2016), and, with Robert Silvers and Ronald Dworkin, The Legacy of Isaiah Berlin (2001). His other books include G.B. Vico: The Making of an Anti-Modern (1994), The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern West (2007), and, most recently, The Once and Future Liberal: On Political Reaction (2017). He was the 2015 Overseas Press Club of America winner of the Best Commentary on international News in Any Medium for his New York Review series On France. Visit marklilla.com.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780691001050 |
| ISBN 10 | 0691001057 |
| Title | New French Thought |
| Author | Mark Lilla |
| Series | New French Thought Series |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Princeton University Press |
| Year published | 1994-10-23 |
| Number of pages | 232 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |