Politics and the Imagination

by Raymond Geuss

In politics, utopians do not have a monopoly on imagination. Even the most conservative defenses of the status quo, Raymond Geuss argues, require imaginative acts of some kind. In this collection of recent essays, including his most overtly political writing yet, Geuss explores the role of imagination in politics, particularly how imaginative constructs interact with political reality. He uses decisions about the war in Iraq to explore the peculiar ways in which politicians can be deluded and citizens can misunderstand their leaders. He also examines critically what he sees as one of the most serious delusions of western political thinking--the idea that a human society is always best conceived as a closed system obeying fixed rules. And, in essays on Don Quixote , museums, Celan's poetry, Heidegger's brother Fritz, Richard Rorty, and bourgeois philosophy, Geuss reflects on how cultural artifacts can lead us to embrace or reject conventional assumptions about the world. While paying particular attention to the relative political roles played by rule-following, utilitarian calculations of interest, and aspirations to lead a collective life of a certain kind, Geuss discusses a wide range of related issues, including the distance critics need from their political systems, the extent to which history can enlighten politics, and the possibility of utopian thinking in a world in which action retains its urgency.

Genres: Politics, Philosophy, Theory, Essays

216 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2009

About the author

Raymond Geuss, Emeritus Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cambridge, is a political philosopher and scholar of 19th and 20th century European philosophy.

Reviews

[Harry Croxford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big boy Geuss back at it again applying his genealogical method to topics ranging from an eviscerating critique of Blair's handling of the Iraq war; to beautiful essays on literature and poetry; and to the socio-economic influences that permeate museums and their exhibitions. At the crux of Geuss' book is an attentiveness to the importance of imagination even in non utopian political ideologies.

[saml · Rating 4 out of 5]

very good, even for geuss. the first few essays are agreeable, the last is aptly summative, and the personal ones betwixt are profoundly perceptive and emotive. one never quite knows where things will go when reading, but after the fact, they reliably feel as if they have gone where they should have, indicating an apparent comfort in the (broad!) material. diffuse, but chiming together with resolute orientation