Society as a Department Store Critical Reflections on the Liberal State

by Legutko, Ryszard

• ISBN13: 9780739103715
• ISBN10: 0739103717
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-09-18
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

In Society as a Department Store Ryszard Legutko wrestles with the emancipatory ideology promulgated by postmodernists, libertarians, and liberal thinkers. Legutko argues that modern Western liberals have embraced a revolutionary ethic; they have turned their backs on their own cultural heritage, and used its political and ideological apparatus to destroy classical metaphysics and epistemology. The book considers the paradoxical implications of this state of affairs for Eastern European intellectuals arguing that, with the triumph of liberalism over communism, these intellectuals feel compelled to digest an ideology that shares many elements with the oppressive system from which they just liberated themselves. Based on hubris rather than genuine humane concerns, Legutko mourns not simply the loss of faith in classical Western culture, but the way in which that loss is becoming a central point of identity.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Society as a Department Store	p. 5
The Trouble with Toleration	p. 21
Plato's Two Democracies	p. 35
On Postmodern Liberal Conservatism	p. 51
Was Hayek an Instrumentalist?	p. 71
The Free Market in a Republic	p. 89
On Communist Illusion	p. 103
Intellectuals and Communism	p. 115
Sir Isaiah Berlin: A Naive Liberal	p. 135
About the Author	p. 141
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