Since the publication in 1986 of the first edition of "Liberalism", both the world and the author's views have changed significantly. In this second 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. Developments in philosophy have undermined the attempts of liberal theorists to give liberal institutions a universal foundation in reason, while developments in political life have overturned the Enlightenment philosophy of history on which liberal theory depends. The liberal project - the project of stating universal principles which persons and communities with divergent conceptions of the good and differing views of the world can accept as framing terms of peaceful coexistence - has foundered. The task now, as Gray sees it, is to develop a pluralist political theory, in which the liberal problem of finding a modus vivendi among rival communities and worldviews is solved in postliberal terms.
- ISBN10 0335194753
- ISBN13 9780335194759
- Publish Date 16 August 1995 (first published 16 December 1986)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 1 February 2000
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Open University Press
- Edition 2nd Revised edition
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 128
- Language English