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By examining the thought of four seminal thinkers, "Shirley Robin
Letwin" in The Pursuit of Certainty provides a brilliant record of
the gradual change in the English-speaking peoples' understanding
of "what sort of activity politics is." As Letwin writes, "the
distinctive political issue since the eighteenth century has been
whether government should do more or less." Nor, as many historians
argue, did this issue arise because of the Industrial Revolution or
"new social conditions that] aggravated the problem of poverty"
but, Letwin believes, because of the "profoundly personal
reflection" of major thinkers, including Hume, Bentham, Mill, and
Webb. David Hume, for example, believed that to "reach for
perfection, to seek an ideal, is noble, but dangerous, and is
therefore an activity that individuals or voluntary groups may
pursue, but governments certainly should not." By the end of the
nineteenth century, as Letwin observes, Beatrice Webb came to
"equate the triumph of reason over passion with the rule of science
over human life." Thus did the "pursuit of certainty" displace the
traditional English understanding of the limitations of human
nature--hence the necessity of limits to governmental power and
programs. Consequently, in our time, "Politics was no longer one of
several human activities and at that not a very noble one; it
encompassed all of human life" in quest of philosophical
"certainty" and social perfection. The Liberty Fund edition is a
reprint of the original work published by Oxford in 1965.Shirley
Robin Letwin (1924-1993) was a Professor of Political and Legal
Philosophy at Harvard, Cambridge, and the London School of
Economics.
By examining the thought of four seminal thinkers, "Shirley Robin
Letwin" in The Pursuit of Certainty provides a brilliant record of
the gradual change in the English-speaking peoples' understanding
of "what sort of activity politics is." As Letwin writes, "the
distinctive political issue since the eighteenth century has been
whether government should do more or less." Nor, as many historians
argue, did this issue arise because of the Industrial Revolution or
"new social conditions that] aggravated the problem of poverty"
but, Letwin believes, because of the "profoundly personal
reflection" of major thinkers, including Hume, Bentham, Mill, and
Webb. David Hume, for example, believed that to "reach for
perfection, to seek an ideal, is noble, but dangerous, and is
therefore an activity that individuals or voluntary groups may
pursue, but governments certainly should not." By the end of the
nineteenth century, as Letwin observes, Beatrice Webb came to
"equate the triumph of reason over passion with the rule of science
over human life." Thus did the "pursuit of certainty" displace the
traditional English understanding of the limitations of human
nature--hence the necessity of limits to governmental power and
programs. Consequently, in our time, "Politics was no longer one of
several human activities and at that not a very noble one; it
encompassed all of human life" in quest of philosophical
"certainty" and social perfection. The Liberty Fund edition is a
reprint of the original work published by Oxford in 1965.Shirley
Robin Letwin (1924-1993) was a Professor of Political and Legal
Philosophy at Harvard, Cambridge, and the London School of
Economics.
This collection of original essays by the nation's leading
political theorists examines the origins of modernity and considers
the question of tolerance as a product of early modern religious
skepticism. Rather than approaching the problem through a purely
historical lens, the authors actively demonstrate the significance
of these issues to contemporary debates in political philosophy and
public policy. The contributors to Early Modern Skepticism raise
and address questions of the utmost significance: Is religious
faith necessary for ethical behavior? Is skepticism a fruitful
ground from which to argue for toleration? This book will be of
interest to historians, philosophers, religious scholars, and
political theorists--anyone concerned about the tensions between
private beliefs and public behavior.
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