Comparing Twentieth Century Political Thought Leo Strauss And Richard Rorty

One word that has come to represent the mid-18th century Enlightenment movement is “Reason”. The French philosophes believed that reason could provide critical, informed, scientific solutions to social issues and problems, and essentially improve the human condition. Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground is one of the most famous anti-Enlightenment novels for its rejection of these very notions. Through this novel he showed what he believed were gaps in the idea that the mind could be freed from ignorance through the application of reason, and the rejection of the idea that humankind could achieve a utopian existence as a result.

During the 18th century, many things were happening and the Europeans also were known as “Enlightenment thinkers and philosophers” thought by creating a movement called Age of Enlightenment, it would inflict rational change upon humanity. The Age of Enlightenment is described to be “set out by means of reason and direct observation to discover the fundamental laws governing nature, humanity, and society. The philosophes believed that such discoveries would free the world from tyranny, violence, and instability ” (Davis et al. 17). With this in mind, the goals of the enlightenment were to bring peace to the world and act upon reason. One text, in particular, goes against that and demonstrates the hypocrisy and failure of those goals and is

By looking at the readings of Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Locke, there are a few distinctions between how the modern thinkers viewed politics versus the way the ancient thinkers believed politics should be. There are many topics both modern and ancient thinkers discuss in their writings, such as the purpose of politics, the science of politics, human nature, as well as the ideal regime. By doing so, these thinkers’ views on political topics such as these illuminate how they thought politics should work and who should be able to participate in the activity of politics.

The purpose of all great thinkers is to push the boundaries of the past’s beliefs and encourage a new generation to be receptive to the anticipated ways of the future. The Philosophes were a group of great thinkers during the Enlightenment period. Their ideas permeated society in a way that was revolutionary; they created a reaction and transformed the world, in the best way possible. The term ‘philosophe’ comes from the French word for philosopher. Though, ascribing this sole vocation to The Philosophes deeply undermines their work and communal impact. These intellectuals inspired an era of progression in all aspects of society. Coming down from the height of The Scientific Revolution, The Enlightenment Thinkers advocated rational thought

The Enlightenment Era was a period during the eighteenth century. Its philosophers, often called “the philosophs” attempted to refute the previously held religion-based system by creating arguments based solely on reason, and thus create a completely rational system of thought. But, the question of whether they were as reason-based in their thinking as they attempted to be, given the 11 documents, is unanswerable. While some of the documents are useful to judge this, they are by no means a complete and comprehensive overview of the period’s style of thinking, and some of the documents are entirely unhelpful.

The 19th century was the start of many innovative ideologies that changed history. Not only have these ideologies helped shape the structure of our lives, but they have also changed the way our people and historians view the world around us. Powerful advanced ideas about science, philosophy, religion, psychology and sociology were formed during this century. It can be disputed that no other time period in the world had so many ideas about the best ways integrate themselves in the ever-changing world and have such a positive impact. On the outskirt of the Enlightenment, 19th century activists and thinkers came up with new ways to approach society, economics, and political systems. Out of all the incredible ideas that came from the 19th century Socialism and Liberalism are two of the most important. They are ideas that can still be seen in parts of today’s society and have had dramatic effects on the shaping of our world.

All individuals spend some, if not the entirety of their life in what Socrates describes as, “a cave with a long passageway stretching between [them] and the cave’s mouth,” (Sterling and Scott 209). Cave dwellers find contentment in the shadows on the wall of the cave, never desiring to uncover the root of the shadows and counter fit images. They, unlike philosophers, possess little courage, and desire never to be freed of their shackles and blinders. Philosophers, the minority population of cave dwellers, are those prisoners who not only escape bondage, but have an overwhelming urge to journey outside the cave once they are freed: “One prisoner is freed from his shackles. He is suddenly compelled to stand up, turn around, walk and look toward the light,” (Sterling and Scott 210). The journey from darkness to light, as painted by Socrates, involves pain, confusion, ridicule, and sometimes death; however, those who journey towards the light ultimately reach a greater awareness of true reality, not the disguised reality of shadows and false images on the cave’s walls. Socrates states, “It is a conversion, a turning of the soul away from the day whose light is darkness to the true day. It is the accent to

In his Allegory Plato shows us how a man ascends from the darkness of a cave to the light of the outside world. In this ascent Plato’s man passes through four distinct stages of cognition: from imagination, to belief, understanding, and finally knowledge.

“The society we have described can never grow into a reality or see the light of day, and there will be no end to the troubles of states, or indeed, my dear Glaucon, of humanity itself, till philosophers becomes kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands, while the many natures now content to follow either to the exclusion of the other are forcibly debarred from doing so. This is what I have hesitated to say so long, knowing what a paradox it would sound; for it is not easy to see that there is no other real road to happiness either for society or the individual.”(The Republic, 376de)

Socrates’s anecdote of the cave presents a ghastly image: people who “are in it from childhood with their legs and necks in bonds so that they are fixed, seeing only in front of them, unable because of the bond to turn their heads all the way around” (193). Also inside the cave is a “fire burning” which allows certain objects (out of sight and controlled by others) to project shadows (193). Consequently, the prisoners believe that the shadows are the most real things. When a prisoner is released, he experiences pain due to the light of the fire. In time, he recognizes the truth and becomes accustomed to it. He is then “dragged out into the light of the sun” (194). After a few moments, he tolerates its rays. Most importantly though, he grasps “the sun itself” (195). Finally, the escapee is not content with keeping this

W.G. Sebald’s novel The Rings of Saturn explores the relationship between toleration and persecution through a first person narrative. The novel is preoccupied with loss and the ways we have tried to come to terms with mortality. It is a meditation on the destructive nature of history, the human lives affected, and the restorative power of art. However, his work is not simply a record of these human-induced catastrophes, but also attempts to fashion new representational tools for the purpose of acknowledging and coming to terms with the realities of modern human history. Sebald’s critcism tends to focus on the biographical and psychological backgrounds of the writers he mentions. He draws heavily on the canon of twentieth-century Marxist thought, including works from Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer. His complex thesis draws specifically on their work The Dialectic of Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement that spread through Europe during the eighteenth century, which involved a radical change in the way that philosophers and others understood the role of reason. It valued independent thought and promoted reason to a higher status and for some came to replace faith. Intrinsic in Sebald’s work is the idea that the Enlightenment project was programmed by violent distrusts of the non-identical and a coercive desire to eliminate otherness. Specifically, Sebald draws on Horkheimer and Adorno’s critique of civilization articulated in The Dialectic of the

The 18th century is referred to as the ‘Age of Enlightenment’. The trends in thought and letters from Europe to the American colonies brought a new light and attention upon mankind. This new movement described a time in Western philosophy and cultural life in which reason was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority. ‘To understand the natural world and humankinds place in it solely on the basis of reason and without turning to religious belief was the goal of the wide-ranging intellectual movement’ (Hackett). At the heart o this age, a conflict began between religion and the inquiring mind that wanted to know and understand through reason based on evidence and proof rather than belief on faith alone.

A person considering living the examined life might face several obstacles, such as disagreement, opposition from other people. If a person questions common beliefs of his or her neighborhood, people surrounding him or her might feel betrayed and turn away or they may even become a threat to the person who is making new discoveries and wants to share them with society. Plato shows that in the “Allegory of The Cave” when the prisoner comes back to the cave to let others know what he has found in the outside world. In the text Plato writes “would he not provoke laughter, and would it not be said of him that he had returned from his journey aloft with his eyes ruined and that it was not work while even to attempt the ascent? And if it were possible to lay hands on and kill the man who tried to release them and lead them up, would they not kill him? They certainly would, he said” (Allegory 517 a), the other prisoners found the man questioning their ideas as wrong and considered him as a risk to their environment. They [the prisoners] would kill him if he tried to free them and take them out of the comfort of familiar surroundings. The chained prisoners represent people around us who are not willing to change nor have an open mind towards new information, they are very skeptical and

The dawn of the Enlightenment brought forth a slew of radical notions that challenged society’s dominant sentiments at the time. With the onslaught of conversations about the nature and purpose of humanity, Enlightenment thinkers conceived novel concepts of anti-authoritarian thinking, empiricism, and the role of reason in humanity. As the Enlightenment led to an upheaval in how intellectuals took the authority of traditional learning, new conversations about the human condition were born. Namely, an emphasis on reason and logic as the primary mechanisms of humanity was developed. Prolific Scottish philosopher David Hume, best known for his radical use of skepticism to examine every possible concept in the vast index of Enlightenment values, emerged as a revolutionary departure from the traditional French and English Enlightenment thinkers. Hume was known for applying a brand of skepticism in his consideration of concepts such as reason, human sympathy, and the authority of traditional ideas. While David Hume’s extreme skepticism challenges preconceived notions of Enlightenment values, his approach is ultimately quite reflective of the core beliefs that represent the pinnacle of Enlightenment thought; thereby reinforcing such values while simultaneously casting them in an increasingly realistic light.

Political theory is the study of concepts that allows for the analytical study of relationships between political institutions. Over the centuries, political theorists have established renditions of what political theory is. This essay will focus on Plato, Nietzsche, and Aristotle, and their works, which respectively define the concepts of the common good and the significance of philosophers to the welfare of the state, self-deceiving intellect and the power of authority over our intellectual lives, and the concepts of interdependency and the importance of virtue and happiness for a successful political framework.