John Gray (philosopher)
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| + | "If [[human being]]s were potentially capable of applying [[reason]] in their lives they would show some sign of [[learning from what they had done wrong in the past]], but history and everyday practice show them committing the same [[folly|follies]] over and over again. They would alter their beliefs in accordance with facts, but [[clinging to beliefs]] in the face of contrary evidence is one of the most powerful and enduring human traits." --"[[Believing in Reason is Childish]]" - John Gray | ||
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| + | “It is a truism that [[socialism]] is dead, and an irony that it survives most robustly as a doctrine not in Paris, where it has suffered a fate worse than falsification by becoming thoroughly unfashionable, nor in London, where it has been abandoned by the Labour Party, but in the universities of capitalist America, as the ideology of the American academic nomenklatura.” (John Gray, "[[The End of History, Again?]]" (1989) | ||
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| '''John Nicholas Gray''' (born 17 April 1948) is an English [[political philosopher]] with interests in [[analytic philosophy]] and the [[history of ideas]]. He retired as School Professor of European Thought at the [[London School of Economics and Political Science]]. Gray contributes regularly to ''[[The Guardian]]'', ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'' and the ''[[New Statesman]]'', where he is the lead book reviewer. | '''John Nicholas Gray''' (born 17 April 1948) is an English [[political philosopher]] with interests in [[analytic philosophy]] and the [[history of ideas]]. He retired as School Professor of European Thought at the [[London School of Economics and Political Science]]. Gray contributes regularly to ''[[The Guardian]]'', ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'' and the ''[[New Statesman]]'', where he is the lead book reviewer. | ||
| - | Gray has written several influential books, including ''[[False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism]]'' (1998), which argues that free market globalization is an unstable [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] project currently in the process of disintegration, ''Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals'' (2003), which attacks philosophical [[humanism]], a worldview which Gray sees as originating in religious ideologies, and ''[[Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia]]'' (2007), a critique of [[utopian]] thinking in the modern world. Gray sees [[volition (psychology)|volition]], and hence [[morality]], as an illusion, and portrays humanity as a ravenous species engaged in wiping out other forms of life. Gray writes that 'humans ... cannot destroy the Earth, but they can easily wreck the environment that sustains them.' | + | Gray has written several influential books, including ''[[False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism]]'' (1998), which argues that free market globalization is an unstable [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] project currently in the process of disintegration, ''[[Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals]]'' (2003), which attacks philosophical [[humanism]], a worldview which Gray sees as originating in religious ideologies, and ''[[Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia]]'' (2007), a critique of [[utopian]] thinking in the modern world. Gray sees [[volition (psychology)|volition]], and hence [[morality]], as an illusion, and portrays humanity as a ravenous species engaged in wiping out other forms of life. Gray writes that 'humans ... cannot destroy the Earth, but they can easily wreck the environment that sustains them.' |
| He is an atheist. | He is an atheist. | ||
| - | |||
| ==Bibliography== | ==Bibliography== | ||
| - | *''Mill on Liberty: A Defence'' (1983). ISBN 0-7100-9270-9. | + | ;1980s |
| + | *''Mill on Liberty: A Defence'' (1983). {{ISBN|0-7100-9270-9}}. | ||
| *''Conceptions of Liberty in Political Philosophy'' (ed. with [[Zbigniew Pelczynski]]) (1984) | *''Conceptions of Liberty in Political Philosophy'' (ed. with [[Zbigniew Pelczynski]]) (1984) | ||
| *''Hayek on Liberty'' (1984) | *''Hayek on Liberty'' (1984) | ||
| - | *''Liberalism'' (1986). ISBN 0-8166-1521-7. | + | *''Liberalism'' (1986). {{ISBN|0-8166-1521-7}}. |
| - | *''Liberalisms: Essays in Political Philosophy'' (1989). ISBN 0-415-00744-5. | + | *''Liberalisms: Essays in Political Philosophy'' (1989). {{ISBN|0-415-00744-5}}. |
| - | *''J.S. Mill, "On Liberty": In Focus'' (ed. with G.W. Smith) (1991). ISBN 0-415-01001-2. | + | ;1990s |
| - | *''Beyond the New Right: Markets, Government and the Common Environment'' (1993). ISBN 0-415-09297-3. | + | *''J.S. Mill, "On Liberty": In Focus'' (ed. with G.W. Smith) (1991). {{ISBN|0-415-01001-2}}. |
| - | *''Postliberalism: Studies in Political Thought'' (1993). ISBN 0-415-13553-2. | + | *''Beyond the New Right: Markets, Government and the Common Environment'' (1993). {{ISBN|0-415-09297-3}}. |
| - | *''Enlightenment's Wake: Politics and Culture at the Close of the Modern Age'' (1995). ISBN 0-415-16335-8. | + | *''[[Postliberalism: Studies in Political Thought]]'' (1993). {{ISBN|0-415-13553-2}}. |
| + | *''Enlightenment's Wake: Politics and Culture at the Close of the Modern Age'' (1995). {{ISBN|0-415-16335-8}}. | ||
| *''Berlin'' ([[Fontana Modern Masters]], 1995). | *''Berlin'' ([[Fontana Modern Masters]], 1995). | ||
| - | *''Liberalism'' (2nd ed.) (1995). ISBN 0-8166-2801-7. | + | *''Liberalism'' (2nd ed.) (1995). {{ISBN|0-8166-2801-7}}. |
| *''After Social Democracy: Politics, Capitalism and the Common Life'' (1996) | *''After Social Democracy: Politics, Capitalism and the Common Life'' (1996) | ||
| *''Mill on Liberty: A Defence'' (2nd ed.) (1996) | *''Mill on Liberty: A Defence'' (2nd ed.) (1996) | ||
| - | *''Endgames: Questions in Late Modern Political Thought'' (1997). ISBN 0-7456-1882-0. | + | *''Endgames: Questions in Late Modern Political Thought'' (1997). {{ISBN|0-7456-1882-0}}. |
| *''Hayek on Liberty'' (3rd ed.) (1998) | *''Hayek on Liberty'' (3rd ed.) (1998) | ||
| - | *''[[False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism]]'' (1998, revised edition 2009). ISBN 1-56584-592-7. | + | *''[[False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism]]'' (1998, revised edition 2009). {{ISBN|1-56584-592-7}}. |
| - | *''Voltaire'' (1998). ISBN 0-415-92394-8. | + | *''Voltaire'' (1998). {{ISBN|0-415-92394-8}}. |
| - | *''Two Faces of Liberalism'' (2000). ISBN 1-56584-589-7. | + | ;2000s |
| - | *''Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals'' (2002). ISBN 1-86207-512-3. | + | *''Two Faces of Liberalism'' (2000). {{ISBN|1-56584-589-7}}. |
| - | *''Al Qaeda and What it Means to be Modern'' (2003). ISBN 1-56584-805-5. | + | *''[[Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals]]'' (2002). {{ISBN|1-86207-512-3}}. |
| - | *''Heresies: Against Progress and Other Illusions'' (2004). ISBN 1-86207-718-5. | + | *''[[Al Qaeda and What it Means to be Modern]]'' (2003). {{ISBN|1-56584-805-5}}. |
| - | *''[[Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia]]'' (2007). ISBN 0-7139-9915-2. | + | *''Heresies: Against Progress and Other Illusions'' (2004). {{ISBN|1-86207-718-5}}. |
| - | *''Gray's Anatomy: Selected Writings'' (2009). ISBN 978-0-385-66788-3 | + | *''[[Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia]]'' (2007). {{ISBN|0-7139-9915-2}}. |
| - | *''The Immortalization Commission: Science and the Strange Quest to Cheat Death'' (2011). ISBN 978-1-84614-219-2 | + | *''[[Gray's Anatomy: Selected Writings]]'' (2009). {{ISBN|978-0-385-66788-3}} |
| - | *''[[The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths]]'' (2013). ISBN 0374229171 | + | ;2010s |
| + | *''The Immortalization Commission: Science and the Strange Quest to Cheat Death'' (2011). {{ISBN|978-1-84614-219-2}} | ||
| + | *''The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths'' (2013). {{ISBN|0374229171}} | ||
| + | *''[[The Soul of the Marionette: A Short Inquiry into Human Freedom]]'' (2015). {{ISBN|9781846144493}} | ||
| + | *''Seven Types of Atheism'' (2018). {{ISBN|0241199417}} | ||
| + | == See also == | ||
| + | * ''[[The Alexis de Tocqueville Tour: Exploring Democracy in America]]'' | ||
| + | * [[Alexis de Tocqueville Institution]] | ||
| + | * [[Benjamin Constant]], author of ''Liberty of the Ancients and the Moderns'' | ||
| + | * [[Gustave de Beaumont]], Tocqueville's best friend and travel companion to the United States | ||
| + | * [[Ferdinand de Lesseps]], French diplomat and developer of Suez Canal | ||
| + | * [[Prix Alexis de Tocqueville]] | ||
| + | * [[Tocqueville effect]], a social phenomenon | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''General:''' | ||
| + | * [[Civil society]] | ||
| + | * [[Contributions to liberal theory]] | ||
| + | * [[Liberalism]] | ||
| + | * [[List of historians of the French Revolution]] | ||
| + | * [[Soft despotism]] | ||
| + | * [[Tyranny of the majority]] | ||
| + | * [[Progress]] | ||
| {{GFDL}} | {{GFDL}} | ||
| + | [[Category:Canon]] | ||
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"If human beings were potentially capable of applying reason in their lives they would show some sign of learning from what they had done wrong in the past, but history and everyday practice show them committing the same follies over and over again. They would alter their beliefs in accordance with facts, but clinging to beliefs in the face of contrary evidence is one of the most powerful and enduring human traits." --"Believing in Reason is Childish" - John Gray “It is a truism that socialism is dead, and an irony that it survives most robustly as a doctrine not in Paris, where it has suffered a fate worse than falsification by becoming thoroughly unfashionable, nor in London, where it has been abandoned by the Labour Party, but in the universities of capitalist America, as the ideology of the American academic nomenklatura.” (John Gray, "The End of History, Again?" (1989) |
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John Nicholas Gray (born 17 April 1948) is an English political philosopher with interests in analytic philosophy and the history of ideas. He retired as School Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Gray contributes regularly to The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement and the New Statesman, where he is the lead book reviewer.
Gray has written several influential books, including False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism (1998), which argues that free market globalization is an unstable Enlightenment project currently in the process of disintegration, Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals (2003), which attacks philosophical humanism, a worldview which Gray sees as originating in religious ideologies, and Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia (2007), a critique of utopian thinking in the modern world. Gray sees volition, and hence morality, as an illusion, and portrays humanity as a ravenous species engaged in wiping out other forms of life. Gray writes that 'humans ... cannot destroy the Earth, but they can easily wreck the environment that sustains them.'
He is an atheist.
[edit]
Bibliography
- 1980s
- Mill on Liberty: A Defence (1983). Template:ISBN.
- Conceptions of Liberty in Political Philosophy (ed. with Zbigniew Pelczynski) (1984)
- Hayek on Liberty (1984)
- Liberalism (1986). Template:ISBN.
- Liberalisms: Essays in Political Philosophy (1989). Template:ISBN.
- 1990s
- J.S. Mill, "On Liberty": In Focus (ed. with G.W. Smith) (1991). Template:ISBN.
- Beyond the New Right: Markets, Government and the Common Environment (1993). Template:ISBN.
- Postliberalism: Studies in Political Thought (1993). Template:ISBN.
- Enlightenment's Wake: Politics and Culture at the Close of the Modern Age (1995). Template:ISBN.
- Berlin (Fontana Modern Masters, 1995).
- Liberalism (2nd ed.) (1995). Template:ISBN.
- After Social Democracy: Politics, Capitalism and the Common Life (1996)
- Mill on Liberty: A Defence (2nd ed.) (1996)
- Endgames: Questions in Late Modern Political Thought (1997). Template:ISBN.
- Hayek on Liberty (3rd ed.) (1998)
- False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism (1998, revised edition 2009). Template:ISBN.
- Voltaire (1998). Template:ISBN.
- 2000s
- Two Faces of Liberalism (2000). Template:ISBN.
- Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals (2002). Template:ISBN.
- Al Qaeda and What it Means to be Modern (2003). Template:ISBN.
- Heresies: Against Progress and Other Illusions (2004). Template:ISBN.
- Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia (2007). Template:ISBN.
- Gray's Anatomy: Selected Writings (2009). Template:ISBN
- 2010s
- The Immortalization Commission: Science and the Strange Quest to Cheat Death (2011). Template:ISBN
- The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths (2013). Template:ISBN
- The Soul of the Marionette: A Short Inquiry into Human Freedom (2015). Template:ISBN
- Seven Types of Atheism (2018). Template:ISBN
[edit]
See also
- The Alexis de Tocqueville Tour: Exploring Democracy in America
- Alexis de Tocqueville Institution
- Benjamin Constant, author of Liberty of the Ancients and the Moderns
- Gustave de Beaumont, Tocqueville's best friend and travel companion to the United States
- Ferdinand de Lesseps, French diplomat and developer of Suez Canal
- Prix Alexis de Tocqueville
- Tocqueville effect, a social phenomenon
General:
- Civil society
- Contributions to liberal theory
- Liberalism
- List of historians of the French Revolution
- Soft despotism
- Tyranny of the majority
- Progress
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "John Gray (philosopher)" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
