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Review
'Gray is one of our best social and political theorists ... This powerful and radical work opens as many doors as it closes.' - New Statesman
'Gray is a clever and energetic political theorist in the analytical mode. He is also dauntingly well-read and up-to-date.' - Guardian
Product Description
John Gray is the bestselling author of such books as Straw Dogs and Al Qaeda and What it Means to be Modern which brought a mainstream readership to a man who was already one of the UK's most well respected thinkers and political theorists.
Gray wrote Enlightenment’s Wake in 1995 – six years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and six years before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Turning his back on neoliberalism at exactly the moment that its advocates were in their pomp, trumpeting 'the end of history' and the supposedly unstoppable spread of liberal values across the globe, Gray’s was a lone voice of scepticism. The thinking he criticised here would lead ultimately to the invasion of Iraq. Today, its folly might seem obvious to all, but as this edition of Enlightenment’s Wake shows, John Gray has been trying to warn us for some fifteen years – the rest of us are only now catching up with him.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I don't usually write reviews but because this lacks one, and because as a student of politics and history this has been invaluable help, I'll offer my thoughts.
This is not a polemic like Gray's more recent works; instead it is a series of essays written in the early 1990s which range from issues of toleration and agonistic liberalism to the transition of post communist societies. The broad thesis is that the collapse of the Soviet Union will, instead of heralding victory for liberalism, precipitate a legitimacy crisis and ultimately a return to classic geopolitical conflicts centred around ethnic, religious and resource conflicts. But whilst later books such as 'Black Mass' focus on the practical results of this, Enlightenments Wake is an exploration of the philosophical foundations of the Enlightenment and the implications to classical liberalism and society in general of its collapse.
Though Gray isn't a particularly original thinker, like his mentor Isaiah Berlin, he is extraordinarily well read, has an uncanny feel for the trends of his time, and is an extremely perceptive and critical interpreter of other thinkers. For anyone with any interest in politics he is an invaluable introduction to late liberal thought and often ignored thinkers such as Illich, Oakeshot and McIntyre. In particular the final eponymous essay is, in my opinion, the greatest ever written on the subject of political philosophy.
`The dissolution of morality, as that was conceived in both classical and Christian terms, and the fracturing of the inherited of the inherited Western world-view into a diversity of incommensurable perspectives, which is accomplished in Nietzsche's thought, are irreparable, and any cultural losses they may entail are irretrievable. We shall make the best of the opportunities this cultural mutation affords if we relinquish the search for grounds - metaphysical, transcendental or rational - on which we have run around in nihilism. Instead, abandoning the spirit of seriousness that has animated Western philosophy from its founding we may then come to regard the world -views intimated in our culture lightly and playfully, as evanescent art forms rather than weighty representations of the truth.'
This is not a polemic like Gray's more recent works; instead it is a series of essays written in the early 1990s which range from issues of toleration and agonistic liberalism to the transition of post communist societies. The broad thesis is that the collapse of the Soviet Union will, instead of heralding victory for liberalism, precipitate a legitimacy crisis and ultimately a return to classic geopolitical conflicts centred around ethnic, religious and resource conflicts. But whilst later books such as 'Black Mass' focus on the practical results of this, Enlightenments Wake is an exploration of the philosophical foundations of the Enlightenment and the implications to classical liberalism and society in general of its collapse.
Though Gray isn't a particularly original thinker, like his mentor Isaiah Berlin, he is extraordinarily well read, has an uncanny feel for the trends of his time, and is an extremely perceptive and critical interpreter of other thinkers. For anyone with any interest in politics he is an invaluable introduction to late liberal thought and often ignored thinkers such as Illich, Oakeshot and McIntyre. In particular the final eponymous essay is, in my opinion, the greatest ever written on the subject of political philosophy.
`The dissolution of morality, as that was conceived in both classical and Christian terms, and the fracturing of the inherited of the inherited Western world-view into a diversity of incommensurable perspectives, which is accomplished in Nietzsche's thought, are irreparable, and any cultural losses they may entail are irretrievable. We shall make the best of the opportunities this cultural mutation affords if we relinquish the search for grounds - metaphysical, transcendental or rational - on which we have run around in nihilism. Instead, abandoning the spirit of seriousness that has animated Western philosophy from its founding we may then come to regard the world -views intimated in our culture lightly and playfully, as evanescent art forms rather than weighty representations of the truth.'
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
John Gray is so far ahead in thought that at times you have to stop reading and just digest what you have just read.
If hard realism and the cutting away of all the modern day illusions which we take to be truth is what you are looking for then this is just the book for you.
If, however, this is your first go at a Gray book I would strongly suggest reading Straw Dogs first as an introduction to this author as this book will be hard going for the uninitated.
Gray is a master of modern day political philosophy and you can read his books again and again.
Excellent.
If hard realism and the cutting away of all the modern day illusions which we take to be truth is what you are looking for then this is just the book for you.
If, however, this is your first go at a Gray book I would strongly suggest reading Straw Dogs first as an introduction to this author as this book will be hard going for the uninitated.
Gray is a master of modern day political philosophy and you can read his books again and again.
Excellent.
Format:Paperback
John Gray is concerned with the failure of the "Enlightenment Project". The peoples of the world are not converging into a universal civilization on a Western model, and the political philosophers have failed to provide a theory that can justify a single universal political morality by appeal to abstract reason alone. Liberal democracy, according to Gray, is a product of historical contingency, not necessity. We may or may not agree with Gray. It is fair to say, however, that very little has happened since this book was first published in 1995 that makes it seem less relevant or valid.
I am not convinced by all of Gray's conclusions. I found the book stimulating, however.
Gray has a tendency to repeat himself more often than is absolutely necessary. I think that this to some extent may be explained by the fact that the book is based on articles first published in various periodicals.
I am not convinced by all of Gray's conclusions. I found the book stimulating, however.
Gray has a tendency to repeat himself more often than is absolutely necessary. I think that this to some extent may be explained by the fact that the book is based on articles first published in various periodicals.
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