Since the publication in 1986 of the first edition of Liberalism, both the world and the author's views have changed significantly. In this new edition, John Gray argues that whereas liberalism was the political theory of modernity, it is ill-equipped to cope with the dilemmas of the postmodern condition. The task now, as Gray sees it, is to develop a pluralist theory, in which the liberal problem of finding a modus vivendi among rival communities and worldviews is solved in postliberal terms.
Copublished with Open University Press
Author of 5 novels Dancing Priest, A Light Shining, Dancing King, Dancing Prophet, & Dancing Prince, and the non-fiction book Poetry at Work. Editor @tspoetry.
Prophet of the end of liberalism: John Gray at 75 - David Herman at @TheCriticMag https://t.co/zYQCQ3FIs4
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.@DavidMarkHerman offers a homage to the maverick writing of John Gray: “It was at Oxford that he encountered Isaiah Berlin whose darker, more agonistic kind of liberalism influenced him enormously” https://t.co/q33FpSJKBi
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Those who embodied the ruling liberalism are coming to realise that their day is done, wrote John Gray in 2016. 🎂 #NewStatesman110 https://t.co/TTSnQ4oLs7
"The best available introduction to the dilemmas of modern regimes." --Crisis
"In a new conclusion, Gray sets out the postliberal and pluralist view that he now holds--that liberal regimes are only one type of legitimate polity and that liberal practice has no special or universal authority." --Journal of Economic Literature