Western ideas of moral authority, freedom, consensus, and personality emerge from humankinds search for community
In this provocative, classic, absorbing work of social and intellectual history, Robert Nisbet advances the idea that Western social philosophy arose during the disintegration of the ancient Greek and Roman communities, and has been preoccupied ever since with the problem of community lost and community to be gained. He further contends that Western ideas of moral authority, freedom, consensus, and personality take on their distinctive character when viewed through the lens of humankinds search for community.
Much of the books originality lies in its organization. Nisbet distinguishes six major types of community in Western life and thought: military, political, religious, revolutionary, ecological, and plural. Each of these is presented as a continuing current in Western history and as a vital context to the central ideas of social philosophy. From Plato and Aristotle down to such modern thinkers as Marx, Tocqueville, Weber, Kropotkin, and Fanon, we are able to see the dominant ideas and perspectives of Western thought as responses to conflicts and crisesabove all, to those affecting humankinds quest for community. Written by one of Americas best-known historical sociologists, and with a new foreword by Luke Sheahan, The Social Philosophers will be of interest to the student as well as the general reader.
