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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political ideologies > Conservatism & right-of-centre democratic ideologies
In Reason, Tradition, and the Good, Jeffery L. Nicholas addresses
the failure of reason in modernity to bring about a just society, a
society in which people can attain fulfillment. Developing the
critical theory of the Frankfurt School, Nicholas argues that we
rely too heavily on a conception of rationality that is divorced
from tradition and, therefore, incapable of judging ends. Without
the ability to judge ends, we cannot engage in debate about the
good life or the proper goods that we as individuals and as a
society should pursue. Nicholas claims that the project of
enlightenment-defined as the promotion of autonomous reason-failed
because it was based on a deformed notion of reason as mere
rationality, and that a critical theory of society aimed at human
emancipation must turn to substantive reason, a reason constituted
by and constitutive of tradition. To find a reason capable of
judging ends, Nicholas suggests, we must turn to Alasdair
MacIntyre's Thomistic-Aristotelianism. Substantive reason comprises
thinking and acting on the set of standards and beliefs within a
particular tradition. It is the impossibility of enlightenment
rationality to evaluate ends and the possibility of substantive
reason to evaluate ends that makes the one unsuitable and the other
suitable for a critical theory of society. Nicholas's compelling
argument, written in accessible language, remains committed to the
promise of reason to help individuals achieve a good and just
society and a good life. This requires, however, a complete
revolution in the way we approach social life.
Over the last fifty years the life and work of Edmund Burke
(1729-1797) has received sustained scholarly attention and debate.
The publication of the complete correspondence in ten volumes and
the nine volume edition of Burke's Writings and Speeches have
provided material for the scholarly reassessment of his life and
works. Attention has focused in particular on locating his ideas in
the history of eighteenth-century theory and practice and the
contexts of late eighteenth-century conservative thought. This book
broadens the focus to examine the many sided interest in Burke's
ideas primarily in Europe, and most notably in politics and
aesthetics. It draws on the work of leading international scholars
to present new perspectives on the significance of Burke's ideas in
European politics and culture.
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