Library Catalog
Amazon cover image
Image from Amazon.com

An Intellectual History of Liberalism / Pierre Manent.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextSeries: New French Thought Series ; 1Publisher: Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2019]Copyright date: ©1994Description: 1 online resource (152 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780691207193
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 320.5/12/09 22
LOC classification:
  • JC571 .M326613 1994eb
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- CHAPTER I. Europe and the Theologico-Political Problem -- CHAPTER II. Machiavelli and the Fecundity of Evil -- CHAPTER III. Hobbes and the New Political Art -- CHAPTER IV. Locke, Labor, and Property -- CHAPTER V. Montesquieu and the Separation of Powers -- CHAPTER VI. Rousseau, Critic of Liberalism -- CHAPTER VII. Liberalism after the French Revolution -- CHAPTER VIII. Benjamin Constant and the Liberalism of Opposition -- CHAPTER IX. François Guizot: The Liberalism of Government -- CHAPTER X. Tocqueville: Liberalism Confronts Democracy -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Index
Summary: Highlighting the social tensions that confront the liberal tradition, Pierre Manent draws a portrait of what we, citizens of modern liberal democracies, have become. For Manent, a discussion of liberalism encompasses the foundations of modern society, its secularism, its individualism, and its conception of rights. The frequent incapacity of the morally neutral, democratic state to further social causes, he argues, derives from the liberal stance that political life does not serve a higher purpose. Through quick-moving, highly synthetic essays, he explores the development of liberal thinking in terms of a single theme: the decline of theological politics. The author traces the liberal stance to Machiavelli, who, in seeking to divorce everyday life from the pervasive influence of the Catholic church, separated politics from all notions of a cosmological order. What followed, as Manent demonstrates in his analyses of Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau, Guizot, and Constant, was the evolving concept of an individual with no goals outside the confines of the self and a state with no purpose but to prevent individuals from dominating one another. Weighing both the positive and negative effects of such a political arrangement, Manent raises important questions about the fundamental political issues of the day, among them the possibility of individual rights being reconciled with the necessary demands of political organization, and the desirability of a government system neutral about religion but not about public morals.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780691207193

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- CHAPTER I. Europe and the Theologico-Political Problem -- CHAPTER II. Machiavelli and the Fecundity of Evil -- CHAPTER III. Hobbes and the New Political Art -- CHAPTER IV. Locke, Labor, and Property -- CHAPTER V. Montesquieu and the Separation of Powers -- CHAPTER VI. Rousseau, Critic of Liberalism -- CHAPTER VII. Liberalism after the French Revolution -- CHAPTER VIII. Benjamin Constant and the Liberalism of Opposition -- CHAPTER IX. François Guizot: The Liberalism of Government -- CHAPTER X. Tocqueville: Liberalism Confronts Democracy -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

Highlighting the social tensions that confront the liberal tradition, Pierre Manent draws a portrait of what we, citizens of modern liberal democracies, have become. For Manent, a discussion of liberalism encompasses the foundations of modern society, its secularism, its individualism, and its conception of rights. The frequent incapacity of the morally neutral, democratic state to further social causes, he argues, derives from the liberal stance that political life does not serve a higher purpose. Through quick-moving, highly synthetic essays, he explores the development of liberal thinking in terms of a single theme: the decline of theological politics. The author traces the liberal stance to Machiavelli, who, in seeking to divorce everyday life from the pervasive influence of the Catholic church, separated politics from all notions of a cosmological order. What followed, as Manent demonstrates in his analyses of Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau, Guizot, and Constant, was the evolving concept of an individual with no goals outside the confines of the self and a state with no purpose but to prevent individuals from dominating one another. Weighing both the positive and negative effects of such a political arrangement, Manent raises important questions about the fundamental political issues of the day, among them the possibility of individual rights being reconciled with the necessary demands of political organization, and the desirability of a government system neutral about religion but not about public morals.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021)