Liberalism

by John Gray

Since the publication in 1986 of the first edition of Liberalism , both the world and the author’s views have changed significantly. In this new edition, John Gray argues that whereas liberalism was the political theory of modernity, it is ill-equipped to cope with the dilemmas of the postmodern condition. The task now, as Gray sees it, is to develop a pluralist theory, in which the liberal problem of finding a modus vivendi among rival communities and worldviews is solved in postliberal terms. Copublished with Open University Press

Genres: Politics, Philosophy, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1986

About the author

John Nicholas Gray is a English political philosopher with interests in analytic philosophy and the history of ideas. He retired in 2008 as School Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Gray contributes regularly to The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement and the New Statesman, where he is the lead book reviewer.

Reviews

[Mohammad Reza · Rating 5 out of 5]

متن برای فردی مثل من که به یک شروع در مورد لیبرالیسم نیاز داشت نه ساده و نه انچنان پیچیده بود غیر از مباحث و تعریف های فلسفی که نتونستم به خوبی دنبالشون کنم بقیه فصل ها و نکته ها برای من آموزنده، جدید و جالب بود.

ترجمه هم خوب ولی ویراستاری بد یکم اذیت کننده بود-
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h...
نکات مهم کتاب میتونید از اینجا بخونید:

[Pavol Hardos · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent and short enough introduction that offers a nice overview of historical developments and core elements of liberalism. The book's main failing is that it is wedded to a silly, limited, and very eighties idea of "classical liberalism" as the basically only correct version of liberalism and consequently pays only limited attention to the "revisionist" high liberalism of the 20th century. This is then over-corrected in the conclusion from the second edition, where Gray unilaterally declares the whole Enlightenment project abandoned, rather than give the intellectually more sophisticated versions the attention they should have received.
2,5/5*

[Danielius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Baisiai sunkus skaitalas, bet suteikia esminių įžvalgų tarp konfliktų kylančių iš skirtingų liberalizmo sampratų, kaip apmokestinti, koks turi būti valdžios "dydis", kokia turi būti visuomenės santvarka.

[Gabrielius Lapinskas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gera knyga, bet jau velnioniškai atsibodo skaityt apie politiką, o ir kartelė auga pamažu. Puikus įvadas į liberalizmą vis tiek.

[Daniel Schotman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good, short and concise overview for anyone who wants to bush up on the intellectual origins of liberalism. For some in dept and detailed discussions I would look elsewhere, though I liked that it started all the way in Ancient Greece as must of the time histories of Liberalism begin with either the Enlightenment, the French Revolution or Benjamin Constant. But there is (to use Skinner's way) a Liberty before Liberalism that is of paramount importance to understand the whole scope of it.

[Donald Trump · Rating 4 out of 5]

a good intro to liberalism, although very short and often quick. An interesting point is Gray points out the German liberalism, French liberalism and British/American liberalism are more or less different however with the same name.

[Timothy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the first edition, which was hardly comprehensive. His selective vision then allowed him, in the years after this book, to lurch into a lot of typically nonsensical po-mo silliness.

[ع · Rating 2 out of 5]

به این درد می‌خورد که در صحبت های خودمانی بگویید من هم چیزکی از لیبرالیسم می‌دانم. در ۱۶۰ صفحه هم به تاریخ اندیشه ی سیاسی با تمرکز بر شکل‌گیری لیبرالیسم پرداخته و هم ایده های مربوطه مثل حقوق اساسی، آزادی، برابری دربرابر قانون را کاویده است. هر یک از اشخاص و مسائل بیش از نیم صفحه مطلبی درباره اش ذکر نشده و کتاب کاملا در سطح می‌ماند. ترجمه بسیار مشعشع است. کاملا تحت الفظی است و تلاش تام روا داشته که پایبند باشد به سبک ترجمه ای که مدرنیته را تجدد، گرایش آنارشیستی را گرایش هرج و مرج طلبانه، محافظه کاری را محافظه گرایی و ... ترجمه کند. شاید نمره ی خود کتاب ۴ باشد اما با چنین ترجمه ای نهایتا ۲

[Paul Womack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overview of classical lberalism and various branches thereof. For me a good introduction.

[Paul Crider · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Gray provides both a usefully brief history of liberalism and an argument for classical liberalism. Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is his distillation of liberalism into four values: egalitarianism, individualism, universalism, and meliorism. Overall, the short volume feels dated, and mostly of interest to those with a specifically academic interest in the history and varieties of liberalism.

[Pajtim Zeqiri · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Gray in this book defends the classical liberalism perspective. He describes a historical and political path of liberalism and asserts that even though there were some of pre-liberal thoughts, liberalism is a product of modernity. According to him convervatorism and socialism have failed, but yet we can "loan" and learn from some of their constructive arguments and ideas.

Moreover, Gray says that democracy is not always compatible with liberalism, because the former can easily turn in a system of non-restricted governance; history has shown us that. A liberal state is one with a limited governance; democracy provides the best tools for it, yet sometimes even an authoritarian state can be such a one.

To conclude it, anyone who might be interested in liberalism as a political thought, this book provides you a good literature review of it. Worth reading!

[Kenneth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good narrative of the "classical" or real type of liberalism, meaning freedom in the root sense of the word.

Short read. Grey is sometimes used in academia to represent the liberal tradition. Traces the thoughts of Mill, where the tradition supposedly began, through Burke, to Acton, Hayek, Mises, Friedman, etc.

[Христо Иванов · Rating 5 out of 5]

Кратък и систематизиран труд, който разглежда либералния сбор от ценности, разделяйки анализа в две категории - история и философия.
Първата част се характеризира основно с хронологичност, втората бих определил, по-скоро, като сравнителен анализ, в които авторът извежда аргументи и контрааргументи на тези, които е заложил имплицитно.
Езикът е относително лек - не много високопарен.

[Waseem Naser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise yet comprehensive, it manages to provide the background on liberal ideas and the Enlightenment project and ideals. What interested me was the relation it has with Modernity and how alternate modernities or postmodern societies could look like.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for class. Good overview of Liberalism, scholars/history/themes etc.