![]() He also places Marx's commodity fetishism as one of the most important theories in the history of political philosophy, and gives an impassioned defence (albeit a conservative one) against consumerism at the end of the book. He even praises Foucault and Sartre at points, and says that Zizek has some interesting things to say about culture. Notably Scruton doesn't dismiss these figures merely because they're leftists: he actually delves into their writings, tries to understand them, wrestles with what they're saying. In the book, Scruton critiques a bunch of different philosophers, historians, and other "thinkers of the new left", including Sartre, Foucault, Althusser, Deleuze, Zizek, Lacan, Hobsbawm, Adorno, Habermas and Lukacs. I say this as someone who until pretty recently considered himself a Marxist or Marxist-leaning, and who loves critical theory and anti-capitalist philosophy. This book, though, is in my opinion quite well-written, charitable to its subjects, and ultimately fairly persuasive of the idea that a lot of continental-type political philosophy is without substance. ![]() Right off the bat, I know Scruton isn't hugely respected in the philosophy community because of the tobacco thing, as well as because he's defended some controversial conservative positions with arguments that aren't very good. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |