- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Basic Books; New edition of Revised edition edition (15 May 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0465002056
- ISBN-13: 978-0465002054
- Product Dimensions: 20.4 x 13.5 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 755,756 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
In this classic work, Thomas Sowell analyzes the two competing visions that shape our debates about the nature of reason, justice, equality, and power: the constrained vision, which sees human nature as unchanging and selfish, and the unconstrained vision, in which human nature is malleable and perfectible. He describes how these two radically opposed views have manifested themselves in the political controversies of the past two centuries, including such contemporary issues as welfare reform, social justice, and crime. Updated to include sweeping political changes since its first publication in 1987, this revised edition of A Conflict of Visions offers a convincing case that ethical and policy disputes circle around the disparity between both outlooks.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have read and re-read this book; as a political theory enthusiast, it's amazing to me how seldom the issue of what Left and Right really are gets addressed.
This is an attempt to make the root assumptions of Left and Right "world views" clear. The fact is, says Sowell, that the Left tends to regard limits and boundaries as movable and subject to change, while the Right sees them more often as immutable, even if tragic.
Sowell is not a philosopher properly speaking, and he does write like a convert from economics, which he is. But the ideas are very fruitful, and not at all limited to Right-wing self-justification, as some advertise it.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Thomas Sowell's "A Conflict of Visions" is a remarkable book. The author's objective portrayal of the two conflicting visions, their premises, their history and their wide ranging implications and ramifications is an excellent education for all who have a serious interest in social and economic policies, as well as politics.
Like Dr. Sowell's other books, "A Conflict of Visions" was the product of meticulous research, objective analysis and much original thought. In my opinion, few people in the public arena today are as brilliant and as well informed as Dr. Sowell.
If you ever wondered why the same two camps of voices combat each other on issue after issue, in politics, in law, in economics and in social policies, if you ever wondered why no unequivocal truth emerged from the conflicting premises through more than 200 years of war and peace, and if you ever wondered (this is the kicker!) why one side's vitriolic portrayal of the other side met with a generally benevolent counter portrayal, you will find the answers in Dr. Sowell's theory of conflicting visions. Reading this book is like discovering Newtonian mechanics.
"A Conflict of Visions" is not an easy read. However, you won't soon forget its ideas.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a brilliant book with an original theory, well explained with many good examples from the works of Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, Condorcet, William Godwin, Thomas Malthus and Fritz Hayek, plus others, whose political views may be understood to flow from conflicting visions of man and society.
The conflicting visions of man and society are the constrained and the unconstrained visions of human nature. The constrained vision of human nature says that man's nature limits what can be done to change him or his society. The unconstrained vision of human nature says that man can be comprehensively improved by social action and moral education: improvement is limited only by effort, not by innate human qualities or by social dynamics. In the constrained vision, the proper method to improve man is to use economic incentives and strict and consistent laws, which limit the harm men can do to each other. In the unconstrained vision, one can legislate for a better society or improve men simply by changing their environment sufficiently.
These basic visions inform consistently-opposed political theories in regard to justice, power, law, the economy, rights, warfare, punishment and rationality, etc, though few people express a pure constrained or unconstrained vision.
A significant asymmetry of moral judgments between the two visions is that those with the constrained vision (conservatives, for example) generally think their opponents are clever and sincere but misguided while those with the unconstrained vision (progressives, for example) generally condemn their political enemies as morally repugnant.
This consequence of the theory perfectly fits my experience, so although Thomas Sowell is scrupulously fair to both visions, to my mind he cannot help formulating good arguments for the rationality and truth of the constrained vision.
The conflicting visions of man and society are the constrained and the unconstrained visions of human nature. The constrained vision of human nature says that man's nature limits what can be done to change him or his society. The unconstrained vision of human nature says that man can be comprehensively improved by social action and moral education: improvement is limited only by effort, not by innate human qualities or by social dynamics. In the constrained vision, the proper method to improve man is to use economic incentives and strict and consistent laws, which limit the harm men can do to each other. In the unconstrained vision, one can legislate for a better society or improve men simply by changing their environment sufficiently.
These basic visions inform consistently-opposed political theories in regard to justice, power, law, the economy, rights, warfare, punishment and rationality, etc, though few people express a pure constrained or unconstrained vision.
A significant asymmetry of moral judgments between the two visions is that those with the constrained vision (conservatives, for example) generally think their opponents are clever and sincere but misguided while those with the unconstrained vision (progressives, for example) generally condemn their political enemies as morally repugnant.
This consequence of the theory perfectly fits my experience, so although Thomas Sowell is scrupulously fair to both visions, to my mind he cannot help formulating good arguments for the rationality and truth of the constrained vision.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
booki
really did not understand what this writer was trying to say, every think
went over my head because this is not my subject or what i wanted to gain out of it.
went over my head because this is not my subject or what i wanted to gain out of it.
Published on 19 Oct 2009 by kami
Tough
I've given up on this, not because it isn't a great book - I'm sure it is. You do get the idea that the author know what he's talking about; It's just that it's tough to read. Read more
Published on 1 Nov 2004
Informative, Insightful, Useful, and Practical
I must admit I found Thomas Sowell somewhat difficult to understand. However, given the abstract nature of the book, I'm not sure many writers could have written much better. Read more
Published on 28 Jun 1999
This is the one book that should be read by every American.
This book traces the history of the modern Conservative and Liberal "visions" from their beginnings about 200 years ago to the present day. Read more
Published on 23 Jun 1998
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