Society as a Department Store: Critical Reflections on the Liberal State

by Ryszard Legutko

In Society as a Department Store Ryszard Legutko wrestles with the emancipatory ideology promulgated by postmodernists, libertarians, and liberal thinkers. Legutko argues that modern Western liberals have embraced a revolutionary ethic; they have turned their backs on their own cultural heritage, and used its political and ideological apparatus to destroy classical metaphysics and epistemology. The book considers the paradoxical implications of this state of affairs for Eastern European intellectuals arguing that, with the triumph of liberalism over communism, these intellectuals feel compelled to digest an ideology that shares many elements with the oppressive system from which they just liberated themselves. Based on hubris rather than genuine humane concerns, Legutko mourns not simply the loss of faith in classical Western culture, but the way in which that loss is becoming a central point of identity.

148 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2002

About the author

Ryszard Legutko is a politician and professor of philosophy at Jagellonian University in Krakow. He has translated and written commentaries on Plato's works, and has written on Socrates and liberal democracies as well.
He is currently a Member of the European Parliament, Chairman of the Parliamentary Group of European Conservatives and Reformists, and a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. He has also served as Poland's Minister of National Education.