Pragmatic Liberalism and the Critique of Modernity (Modern European Philosophy)
Cambridge University Press, 4/15/1999
EAN 9780521640138, ISBN10: 052164013X
Hardcover, 212 pages, 23.7 x 15.7 x 1.8 cm
Language: English
In this book Gary Gutting offers a powerful account of the nature of human reason in modern times. The fundamental question addressed by the book is what authority human reason can still claim once it is acknowledged that our fundamental metaphysical and religious pictures of the world no longer command allegiance. If ethics and science remain sources of authority what is the basis of that authority? Gutting develops answers to these questions through critical analysis of the work of three dominant philosophical voices in our time: Richard Rorty, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Charles Taylor. His own position is defined as 'pragmatic liberalism'.
Introduction
the question of modernity
Part I. Richard Rorty
The Rudiments of Pragmatic Liberalism
1. The philosophy of representations
2. Knowledge without representations
3. Justification as a social practice
4. The problem of truth
5. Davidsonian therapy
6. Truth and science
7. Ethics without foundations
8. Liberal ironism
Part II. Alasdaire MacIntyre
A Modern Malgre Lui
1. MacIntyre's critique of the enlightenment
2. Which enlightenment?
3. In defense of enlightenment humanism
4. The lure of tradition
5. The tradition of the virtues
6. MacIntyre and modernity
7. MacIntyre versus pragmatic liberalism
Part III. Charles Taylor
An Augustinian Modern
1. Taylor's historical project
2. Locke and the radical enlightenment
3. The primacy of everyday life
4. Beyond the enlightenment
evil, romanticism, and poetic truth
5. Taylor's critique of naturalism
6. Williams and objectivity
7. Naturalism and hypergoods
pragmatic liberalism
Conclusion.