A rich and lyrical reflection on the practice of social criticism
and interpretation, and on the formation of moral standards, by one
of our finest social thinkers. It is a little book, divided into
three elegant chapters, but it packs a big wallop. Walzer begins by
arguing that reliable moral criteria can be based only on
interpretations of what people already know and have experienced
morally in their cultures, rather than upon any kind of abstract or
invented wisdom. The second chapter on social criticism flows from
this simple principle. According to Walzer, model social critics
must be "connected" people who earn their authority by arguing with
their fellows from inside a shared and particular culture. Such
critics, in other words, must not be marginal or detached but
willingly immersed in the tensions of the culture they criticize,
seeking to interpret and elaborate the larger meanings of the
cultural system they share with others, and to urge people to live
up to the promise of those meanings. As Walzer says, model social
critics perform their functions "a little to the side but not
outside" the moral order they share with others. Conversely,
disconnected critics share little with the culture they criticize;
they try to invent new principles of behavior, and to impose them
on others through manipulation and coercion. Walzer singles out the
Bolsheviks as examples of disconnected critics. In the last
chapter, Walzer offers an illustration of a "connected" critic in
the figure of the Jewish prophet, Amos, a man embedded in his own
particular culture, who judged the internal character of his
people's society, and who reminded his fellows to live up to their
most revered principles on an everyday basis (in particular, to
live up to their inherited commitment to eliminate the "oppression
of the poor"). Every culture, Walzer says, if it is to thrive, must
listen to the voices of its own prophets. Wonderfully clear, and
informed by a deep commitment to democratic values. (Kirkus
Reviews)
What do social critics do? I How do they go about doing it? Where
do their principles come from? How do critics establish their
distance from the people and institutions they criticize?
Michael Walzer addresses these problems in succinct and engaging
fashion, providing a philosophical framework for understanding
social criticism as a social practice. Walzer maintains that social
criticism is an ordinary activity--less the offspring of scientific
knowledge than the "educated cousin of common complaint"-- and does
not depend for its force or accuracy upon any sort of high theory.
In his view, the social critic is not someone radically detached
and disinterested, who looks at society as a total stranger and
applies objective and universal principles. The true social critic
must stand only a little to the side of his society--unlike
Jean-Paul Sartre during the Algerian war, for example, who
described himself as an enemy of his own people. And unlike Lenin,
who judged Russian society against a standard worked out with
reference to other places far away.
The "connected" critic is the model Walzer offers, one whose
distance is measured in inches but who is highly critical
nevertheless. John Locke is one example of the connected critic who
argued for religious toleration not as a universal right ordained
by reason but as a practical consequence of Protestant theology.
The biblical prophets, such as Amos, were also men of their own
day, with a particular quarrel to conduct with their fellows; the
universalism of that quarrel is our own extrapolation. Walzer
explains where critical principles come from, how much distance is
"critical distance," and what the historical practice ofcriticism
has actually been like in the work of social philosophers such as
Marx, Gramsci, Koestler, Lenin, Habermas, and Rawls.
Walzer posits a moral world already in existence, a historical
product, that gives structure to our lives but whose ordinances are
always uncertain and in need of scrutiny, argument, and commentary.
The social critic need bring to his task only the ordinary tools of
interpretation. Philosophers, political theorists, and all readers
seriously interested in the possibility of a moral life will find
sustenance and inspiration in this book.
General
Imprint: |
Harvard University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
The Tanner Lectures on Human Values |
Release date: |
June 2004 |
First published: |
October 1993 |
Authors: |
Michael Walzer
(Professor of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton)
|
Dimensions: |
210 x 140 x 7mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
108 |
Edition: |
Revised |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-674-45971-7 |
Categories: |
Books >
Social sciences >
Sociology, social studies >
Social theory
Promotions
|
LSN: |
0-674-45971-7 |
Barcode: |
9780674459717 |
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