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Henry George (1839-1897) rose to fame as a social reformer and
economist amid the industrial and intellectual turbulence of the
late nineteenth century. His best-selling Progress and Poverty
(1879) captures the ravages of privileged monopolies and the woes
of industrialization in a language of eloquent indignation. His
reform agenda resonates as powerfully today as it did in the Gilded
Age, and his impassioned prose and compelling thought inspired such
diverse figures as Leo Tolstoy, John Dewey, Sun Yat-Sen, Winston
Churchill, and Albert Einstein. This six-volume edition of The
Annotated Works of Henry George assembles all his major works for
the first time with new introductions, critical annotations,
extensive bibliographical material, and comprehensive indexing to
provide a wealth of resources for scholars and reformers. Volume VI
of this series presents A Perplexed Philosopher (1892), Henry
George's devastating critique of Herbert Spencer's changing views
on the land question after he achieved fame as the author of the
"Synthetic Philosophy." Social Statics (1850), Spencer's first
major work, affirms an equal right of all to the use of the earth.
By the early 1890s, Spencer had recanted this view in such works as
Justice (1891) and an abridged version of Social Statics (1892).
This betrayal of principle by Spencer provoked George to write A
Perplexed Philosopher. In this volume George's original text is
supplemented by critical annotations and an extensive topical
bibliography. A comprehensive index covers all six volumes in the
series. The introductory essay by Dr. Joseph Milne, "Social
Evolution and Moral Sophistry," provides the cultural and
philosophical context for George's critical analysis of Spencer's
tortuous abandonment of the principle of equal freedom with respect
to its application to the use of nature and the furtherance of
equal opportunity for all. In A Perplexed Philosopher, George
employs his considerable logical acumen to reveal Spencer's
multiple inconsistencies and confusions when it comes to the land
question. Spencer did not respond in a systematic fashion to
George's critique. The few comments that he did make show that his
understanding of the movement which George inspired was quite
limited. Henry George wrote A Perplexed Philosopher in order to
correct the many confusions about the land question by a major
nineteenth century philosopher. In doing so he made a significant
contribution to such topics as the issue of compensation, when a
wrongful entitlement is taken away from a privilege-holder, and
tendency of towards materialistic positivism. A Perplexed
Philosopher reveals some fundamental differences between George's
philosophical outlook and other prevailing views in the nineteenth
century. A Perplexed Philosopher is not only a major contribution
to nineteenth century scholarship with regard to the relation
between humanity and nature, but it also illuminates a stark
contrast between George's animating philosophy of equitable reform
and Spencer's philosophy of the status quo.
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