Sebastian Hosu

An Attempt at a Revolutionary Diagnosis

Reviewed: 02-28-21

This book is easy to listen to. The prose flows well and the arguments are constructed through lots of repetition. It is hard to miss the points of the author. The narrator does a very fine job.

What is attempted in this book is grandiose. It is to convince the reader that all the modern ills of the world stem not from neoliberalism, progressivism or any other -ism that can be traced back a few decades or a century, but from design flaws deep within liberalism itself. Which liberalism, you may wonder. The very liberalism that is at the base of all western modern democratic countries. It should be mentioned at this point that, although this book attacks the Liberal world order it mostly describes modern America and is written very much from a contemporary American conservative perspective.

The arguments used are a mixture of traditionally socialist anti-capitalist points (alienation, atomisation, loss of community, consumerism, self-interest of the elites, GDP-growth-worship), a large dose of reactionary conservatism (cultural pessimism, moral panic, disregarding progress, importance of virtue), and a pinch of environmentalism (acknowledgement and fear of climate change). At its most interesting, the book brings all of these together and urges swift action for the sake of the future. Yet, when it comes down to telling us how, the way forward, according to the author, is, essentially, becoming virtuous communitarian Christians who read the Great Books of the western canon.

You might think I am exaggerating. Well... No. I really am not. The Catholicism of the author severely restricts his horizon and his political imagination. The final chapter of the book reads like a manifesto that calls good people to action. It encourages the formation of a post-liberal political paradigm. Yet, given how things have been presented up to that point, the author seems to wish much more for a pre-liberal world where his values would go uncontested.

If I am so unimpressed with this book's conclusion, why 3 stars?

It is an interesting window into the mind of a sophisticated conservative thinker who isn't afraid to criticize the market as much as he does the state. This is a refreshing approach that is worth anyone's time. Especially since the text is very accessible. That said, his grand theory, which equates rampant capitalism, technocratic managerial statism and excessive individualism with liberalism, is, however, so grand that it implodes under its own weight.

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1 person found this helpful

An Excellent Group Biography

Reviewed: 01-22-21

The author, Karl Sigmund, is an esteemed mathematician at the University of Vienna. He is clearly passionate both about the Vienna Circle and the town where lives and works. The lives of the numerous scientists, mathematicians and philosophers who were members of or adjacent to the Vienna Circle are portrayed with detail, empathy and wit.

Firstly, the book presents the pre-war period when two physicist-philosophers, Ernst Mach and Ludwig Boltzmann, laid the groundwork for what will become the Vienna Circle. Next, as WWI comes to a close, the Circle starts to form around Moritz Schlick, Hans Hahn and Otto Neurath - each very interesting characters. Fascinated by the revolutionary works of Einstein, Russell and Wittgenstein, they start regularly meeting to discuss their implications. Soon, they are joined by a great number of thinkers and develop the Scientific Worldview, underpinned by logical empiricism. All this in a politically divided and tumultuous time. In the end, the political situation of the mid to late 1930s as well as a tragic murder causes the Vienna Circle to disperse.

If you believe that the lives and work of such exact thinkers may be too dry to make for an enjoyable biography, you are in for a positive surprise. Not only is it fascinating to see how they bounce ideas off one another, but this also leads to exciting conflicts within the group. Not to mention that some of these thinkers were happy to identify as Epicurian, chasing many pleasures in life. Even the name "Vienna Circle" was chosen by the members as to evoke the finer pleasures of life such as the Vienna woods or the Viennese waltz. Additionally, there is political intrigue, an assassination of a high-ranking politician and even, as mentioned before, the tragic murder of one of the Circle's top members.

What makes the book a bit confusing from time to time, is that it is not structured chronologically the way one might expect. Given that the book deals with a great number of individuals, when the focus shifts from one person to the next, often the author jumps back by a decade or two so that we may catch up with what they've been up to. One can get used to this structure, though.

This book also does not dive deeply into logical empiricism as a philosophy. That is not a problem. That is not the job of a biography. It does, though, provide easily digestible overviews of the main ideas of certain individuals and their work. Some important debates that occur in the period and within the framework of the Circle are also presented. The only time this did not work for me is when, in a chapter on Gödel, quite a bit of mathematical and logical equations are presented. This might be because of my personal ineptitude towards maths, but I did not gain much understanding or pleasure out of these segments. It also probably doesn't work very well in audio format.

The performance of the narrator is excellent! Great diction and consistent in quality throughout.

In conclusion, this is a very enjoyable biography that teaches us how the Scientific Worldview came about, why it was so crucial in such an irrational world and that the philosophers, scientists and mathematicians involved were colourful people with lives worth knowing.

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3 people found this helpful

An amasing portrait of an unsuspecting generation.

Reviewed: 12-27-18

let's get the first thing out of the way. The narrator is excellent! There are footnotes added to the narration. They help flesh out the context. The short note of the translator at the end is also very wolcome and it answers a central question I was asking myself throughout the book in relation to Zweig's suicide.

The book itself is marvellous! A beautiful, if heardbreaking, portrait of a generation (and a class within it) which were too idealistic to foresee the horrors thay lay in store.

The simple persistence in the wake of the disasters of war and hate shows the courage certain individuals had to stand up for decency and friendship while the world around them descended into madness.

This book shows how sometimes the most sensitive of souls can manifest the greatest sort of bravery: staying true to your humanity.

by no means is this book only about war and standing up to it, howecer. It is also about Europe, colourful individuals, women's emancipation, mass ideologies, Jewish identity, class society, travels, civil liberties and the creative process.

Stefan Zweig left us a great before he tragically decided to end his life in 1942. It is the story of his remarkable life in remarkable times!

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6 people found this helpful

This is a difficult, but well rounded course

Reviewed: 11-18-18

Difficult stuff! given enough attention to, there is a good chance one will understand the often very different ways the existentialists confronted and defined the notion of responsibility.

I still can't say I really understand Heidegger.

Some of Nietzsche's and Sartre's notions which I am vaguely familiar with and was hoping to better understand by listening to this course, were not mentioned at all. Of course there is more than enough content here and much to learn, in any case.

My greatest disappointment with the course is the way Dostoyevsky was handles in half a lecture and how De Beauvoir's existentialism got completely omitted. She only gets mentioned in from a few throw-away lines in relation to Sartre.

That said, I will deffinitely listen to this one more time in the future. the Great Courses Plus never disappoints.

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A comprehensive history of science

Reviewed: 10-17-18

These courses are much heavier on the history of science than on the philosophical implications of its evolution. It, predictably also applies the Anglo-Saxon view of what constitutes science (as opposed to Wissenschaft).

The professor is an exceptional speaker who structures the lectures very well. There is never a dull moment. You get a clear basic idea of how fields of science are born, diverge and evolve. At times the densely summarised explanations can be hard to follow, but the comclusion is never illusive.

There is an interesting theory put forward that science moves from explaining the particular or idividual, to the interrelational, to the univeral. Well worth your time!

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Great introduction to the history of philosophy!

Reviewed: 07-17-17

These courses are great if you want to scratch the surfice of the history of thought. Mr. Robinsson provides great structure and a balanced view. He never leaves an issue one-sided and expresses personal opinion humbly. His oratory skills are also remarkable!

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