The Faith of a LiberalThe Faith of a Liberal is in part a misnomer, for the volume reflects the sentiments of a classical philosopher, one with intense curiosities about subjects onging from American literary tradition to the history of the physical sciences. The essays on liberalism as such do, however, bracket the volume--giving life to the title. While Cohen shared many of the political persuasions of such other notables as John Dewey and Ralph Barton Perry, it was the distinctive spin that he gave to the iberal outlook that defines his work. His is a viewpoint stamped by the Jewish condition as a search for justice at one end, and the scientific effort at problem solving at the other. Indeed, the effort to link the two is the essence of "The Faith of a Liberal" Whatever the subject matter or figures covered, the dorsal spine of the work is setting forth an agenda for liberalism that would clearly set it apart from the rising tides of left and right authoritarianism. The essay "Why I Am Not a Communist" remains to this day a blistering indictment of the Soviet regime and its Leninist presumptions. He saw the choice between fascism and communism as a "choice between being shot and being hanged." The final essay, "The Future of American Liberalism," remains of wide current importance. For in it he attempts a synthesis of political individualism and economic collectivism. And even if issues have moved in different directions since that point, the emphasis on liberalism as a process rather than as a structure provides a philosophical basis to the liberal imagination that has rarely been equalled. This is a basic text for students of normative theory in politics and social thought in twentieth-century America. |
From inside the book
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Morris Raphael Cohen. The innocence of Sacco and Vanzetti becomes reasonably cer- tain when we consider the strong cumulative evidence that the murder was committed by the Morelli gang as confessed by one of its members , Madeiros ...
... become a citizen . Professor Russell had at least ten months in which to do so before qualifying for the active performance of his duties . Judge McGeehan tried to disregard this clear provision of the law by the arbitrary guess that ...
... becomes not its legal servant but its master , and this subjects it to all sorts of abuses without its having any legal recourse . The cherished independ- ence of the educational system of New York from political in- terference , which ...
... becomes a scientist ( p . 386 ) . To recognize the class - factor in culture is to achieve the highest merit that a critic can have ( p . 301 ) . But even if we were to grant that social - economic truth is the supreme test of great ...
... become fashionable and thus be the objects of imitation . But that is quite different from being able to explain adequately why Simms and Poe , or Lowell and Emerson , came to write as they did . The phenomena of selection do not ...
Contents
213 | |
Section 2 | 234 |
Section 3 | 256 |
Section 4 | 273 |
Section 5 | 288 |
Section 6 | 292 |
Section 7 | 296 |
Section 8 | 307 |
Section 11 | 337 |
Section 12 | 365 |
Section 13 | 398 |
Section 14 | 408 |
Section 15 | 417 |
Section 16 | 420 |
Section 17 | 425 |
Section 18 | 430 |
Section 9 | 320 |
Section 10 | 334 |
Section 19 | 437 |