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    The New Science of Politics: An Introduction
    Unavailable
    The New Science of Politics: An Introduction
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    The New Science of Politics: An Introduction
    Ebook270 pages4 hours

    The New Science of Politics: An Introduction

    By Eric Voegelin

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    "Thirty-five years ago few could have predicted that The New Science of Politics would be a best-seller by political theory standards. Compressed within the Draconian economy of the six Walgreen lectures is a complete theory of man, society, and history, presented at the most profound and intellectual level. . . . Voegelin's [work] stands out in bold relief from much of what has passed under the name of political science in recent decades. . . . The New Science is aptly titled, for Voegelin makes clear at the outset that a 'return to the specific content' of premodern political theory is out of the question. . . . The subtitle of the book, An Introduction, clearly indicates that The New Science of Politics is an invitation to join the search for the recovery of our full humanity."—From the new Foreword by Dante Germino

    "This book must be considered one of the most enlightening essays on the character of European politics that has appeared in half a century. . . . This is a book powerful and vivid enough to make agreement or disagreement with even its main thesis relatively unimportant."—Times Literary Supplement

    "Voegelin . . . is one of the most distinguished interpreters to Americans of the non-liberal streams of European thought. . . . He brings a remarkable breadth of knowledge, and a historical imagination that ranges frequently into brilliant insights and generalizations."—Francis G. Wilson, American Political Science Review

    "This book is beautifully constructed . . . his erudition constantly brings a startling illumination."—Martin Wright, International Affairs

    "A ledestar to thinking men who seek a restoration of political science on the classic and Christian basis . . . a significant accomplishment in the retheorization of our age."—Anthony Harrigan, Christian Century
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press
    Release dateOct 12, 2012
    ISBN9780226189970
    Unavailable
    The New Science of Politics: An Introduction
    Author

    Eric Voegelin

    Eric Voegelin (1901-1985) was one of the most original and influential philosophers of our time. Born in Cologne, Germany, he studied at the University of Vienna, where he became a professor of political science in the Faculty of Law. In 1938, he and his wife, fleeing Hitler, emigrated to the United States. They became American citizens in 1944. Voegelin spent much of his career at Louisiana State University, the University of Munich, and the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. During his lifetime he published many books and more than one hundred articles. 

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    Reviews for The New Science of Politics

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    • 3/5
      What does a book look like when it asks all the right questions, is concerned about all the right things, and is so completely and utterly conditioned by its historical moment and the author's intellectual and personal background that its answers to these questions and concerns is flat out bizarre? Like this book. Voegelin has a lot in common with Adorno: they both worry that the modern world tends to make people materialistic idiots; they both worry that high culture is being undermined; they both worry about the sort of materialistic idiots who thought Stalinism was a really great idea. They were both far too unwilling or unable to think outside the box of the post-war, Cold War world, and didn't seem to realize that a lot of their pessimism could be explained by the fact that they lived in one of the shittiest epochs of human history. They both something along the lines of "the truth isn't in history" (i.e., 'truth' can't necessarily be judged by what seems to be the case right now) and that "history is in the truth," that is, that 'truth' changes over time. They both have essentially dialectical views of culture, although they'd both deny that (e.g., Voegelin argues that the doubtfulness inherent in Christianity leads to the Gnostic search for certainty, which then undermines Christianity...)

      The differences then: Adorno thinks that if you're going to do or think anything, you should probably do or think something that will make the world a better place, while admitting that you'll probably mess it up; Voegelin thinks that any effort to make the world a better place is doomed to failure, and it's better not to try. Voegelin thinks the major problem with the world is Gnosticism (that is, roughly, the tendency to treat history, subjects and God as if they were objects that we can know in the same way we know objects); Adorno thinks the major problem with the world is capitalism (that is, roughly, the tendency to treat everything as if it were a commodity and, therefore, an object). So that's a similarity and a difference.

      From my perspective, both of those guys have a lot to tell us. This isn't the place to rag on Adorno, but there are some problems you should be aware of, if you plan on reading this book. First, Voegelin's argument is awfully incoherent in a number of spots, most importantly, his claims that Gnosticism ignores the 'structures of reality;' surely only a Gnostic would think there was such a thing as a knowable 'structure of reality'? Second, his insistence on the importance of political order, while perfectly understandable in the face of the second world war, can hardly be transhistorical: sometimes the breakdown of order is a good thing. Tied in to this, I'm pretty sure he's sometimes just trying to get a rise out of his reader, as, for instance, when he complains about the 'magical dream' foolishness of wanting world peace. Finally, and most obviously, his suggestion at the end of the book that the U.S., despite being founded by Gnostic Puritans, is a bastion of the 'Mediterranean' tradition, is either wishful thinking or a joke. Admit it man! Capitalism is a Gnosticism! More specifically: there is *no* force in the world which is neither 'Gnostic' nor revolutionary. Voegelin should have just bitten the bullet. If he's right, either it's all downhill from here, or there will have to be massive social change. Like Adorno, so for a consistent Voegelin: our choice is socialism or barbarism.

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