Retoriche dell'intransigenza. Perversità, futilità, messa a repentaglio

Hirschman was a cosmopolitan, intellectually omnivorous scholar with literary tastes, and although he might best be described as an interdisciplinary social scientist (somewhere between politics, sociology and economics), he shone as a historian of ideas, which is how I would classify The Passions a Leggi tutto

I almost do not want to give this book four stars, for Hirschman is at times too brief. His statements about the flaws in certain reactionary arguments are short and therefore lack bite. Yet, he does a fair job of exploring three common conservative arguments against reform and revolution. His most

Súper interesante. Hace un repaso desde la revolución francesa hasta la creación del estado benefactor donde establece que los reaccionarios siempre se han opuesto a los avances sociales mediante 3 tesis: perversidad, futilidad y del riesgo.

I have long held that people have dangerously misunderstood Plato's derision of rhetoric such they feel it can be ignored; you would think the fact that Plato spent half his corpus on the topic of rhetoric would stave off the idea it can be ignored. As such I always find analyses such as Hirschman's Leggi tutto

Why do conservatives / reactionaries argue the way they do? And not just the conservatives of today but, indeed, those of the last two hundred years who have opposed, decried or critiqued social change and revolution with all their intellectual resources and rhetorical skill? How nuanced and masterfu Leggi tutto

An excellent look at the arguments reactionaries make in response to various kinds of political reform, as well as, in a later chapter, arguments made by progressives. Hirschman critiques reactionary arguments and discusses why such arguments are made and why they are often accepted. Highly recommen Leggi tutto

Interesting framework to evaluate political debate fallacies. Especially the last chapter is a masterclass.