Bücher von Raymond Geuss

Wir werden lernen müssen, was es heißt, in sinnvoller Weise aktiv zu sein, während einerseits weniger produziert und konsumiert wird und wir uns andererseits von den Pathologien des unbegrenzten Wachstums und der unausgesetzten Steigerung menschlicher Produktivkräfte befreien.»Ein zeitgemäßer und wichtiger Beitrag für unser Verständnis von der komplexen Realität der Arbeit. Das Buch wirft auf originelle Weise neue Fragen auf, während es sich gleichzeitig mit den Klassikern auseinandersetzt. Eine wunderschön geschriebene Studie [¿] mit der für den Autor charakteristischen Scharfsinnigkeit und dem ihm eigenen Humor.« Brian O¿Connor, University College Dublin

»Schlussendlich müssen wir entscheiden, welche Art von Menschen wir sein möchten, als Individuen ebenso wie als Kollektiv. Die Philosophie kann dabei eine Rolle spielen, aber wir sollten darüber hinaus auf Ressourcen zurückgreifen, die breiter sind als diejenigen, die die Philosophie zur Verfügung stellen kann.« Für die meisten Menschen im »Westen« ist der Liberalismus zu einer Gegebenheit quasinatürlicher Art geworden, zu einem auf Dauer gestellten Hintergrundrauschen. Und doch gibt es in jeder Gesellschaft Winkel abseits des kulturellen Mainstreams. Der Philosoph Raymond Geuss ist in einem solchen Winkel aufgewachsen und zeichnet in seinem Buch nach, wie er in jungen Jahren mit einer ethisch-politischen Perspektive vertraut gemacht wurde, die sein Denken nachhaltig geprägt hat. 1959 kommt der begabte Sohn eines tiefkatholischen Stahlarbeiters auf ein Internat am Stadtrand von Philadelphia. Umgeben von Eisenhowers Amerika, versuchen ungarische Priester dort, den jungen Geuss zu immunisieren: gegen den repressiv-autoritären Kommunismus, dem sie entflohen waren, aber auch gegen den geistlosen liberalen Kapitalismus, in dem sie nun leben. Danach - es ist Vietnamkrieg und »1968« - geht Geuss zum Studium nach New York, wo er auf legendäre akademische Lehrer wie Sidney Morgenbesser trifft, und nach Westdeutschland, wo er das erste Mal Adorno liest . Nicht wie ein Liberaler denken führt mit analytischer Klarheit durch die intellektuellen Strömungen, die Geuss' ablehnende Haltung zu Liberalismus und Autoritarismus geformt haben. Eine faszinierende persönliche Ideengeschichte und eine fesselnde Darstellung der Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Philosophie.

Habermas and earlier members of the Frankfurt School have presented critical theory as a radically new form of knowledge. It is differentiated from the natural sciences as essentially 'reflective': the knowledge it provides guides us towards enlightenment as to our true interests, and emancipation from often unsuspected forms of external and internal coercion. Its first paradigms are in the writings of Marx and Freud. In this book Raymond Geuss sets out these fundamental claims and asks whether they can be made good. Is a science which does not simply describe and explain social phenomena, but also criticizes? The concept of ideology plays a crucial role in this discussion. Geuss carefully analyses it here, its relation to our beliefs and interests, and the account of truth and confirmation required by its critique and the concomitant goal of self-knowledge. The book does not presuppose acquaintance with the works of the Frankfurt School and can serve as a lucid introduction to their central, distinctive theses. But in its scrupulous and incisive consideration of these, and the modified support for them that emerges, it will also interest experts on critical theory and others concerned with the methods and purposes of the social sciences in general.

Outside Ethics brings together some of the most important and provocative works by one of the most creative philosophers writing today. Seeking to expand the scope of contemporary moral and political philosophy, Raymond Geuss here presents essays bound by a shared skepticism about a particular way of thinking about what is important in human life--a way of thinking that, in his view, is characteristic of contemporary Western societies and isolates three broad categories of things as important: subjective individual preferences, knowledge, and restrictions on actions that affect other people (restrictions often construed as ahistorical laws). He sets these categories in a wider context and explores various human phenomena--including poetry, art, religion, and certain kinds of history and social criticism--that do not fit easily into these categories. As its title suggests, this book seeks a place outside conventional ethics. Following a brief introduction, Geuss sets out his main concerns with a focus on ethics and politics. He then expands these themes by discussing freedom, virtue, the good life, and happiness. Next he examines Theodor Adorno's views on the relation between suffering and knowledge, the nature of religion, and the role of history in giving us critical distances from existing identities. From here he moves to aesthetic concerns. The volume closes by looking at what it is for a human life to have "e;gaps"e;--to be incomplete, radically unsatisfactory, or a failure.

Much political thinking today, particularly that influenced by liberalism, assumes a clear distinction between the public and the private, and holds that the correct understanding of this should weigh heavily in our attitude to human goods. It is, for instance, widely held that the state may address human action in the ''public'' realm but not in the ''private.'' In Public Goods, Private Goods Raymond Geuss exposes the profound flaws of such thinking and calls for a more nuanced approach. Drawing on a series of colorful examples from the ancient world, he illustrates some of the many ways in which actions can in fact be understood as public or private. The first chapter discusses Diogenes the Cynic, who flouted conventions about what should be public and what should be private by, among other things, masturbating in the Athenian marketplace. Next comes an analysis of Julius Caesar's decision to defy the Senate by crossing the Rubicon with his army; in doing so, Caesar asserted his dignity as a private person while acting in a public capacity. The third chapter considers St. Augustine's retreat from public life to contemplate his own, private spiritual condition. In the fourth, Geuss goes on to examine recent liberal views, questioning, in particular, common assumptions about the importance of public dialogue and the purportedly unlimited possibilities humans have for reaching consensus. He suggests that the liberal concern to maintain and protect, even at a very high cost, an inviolable ''private sphere'' for each individual is confused. Geuss concludes that a view of politics and morality derived from Hobbes and Nietzsche is a more realistic and enlightening way than modern liberalism to think about human goods. Ultimately, he cautions, a simplistic understanding of privacy leads to simplistic ideas about what the state is and is not justified in doing.