Enemies of hope a critique of contemporary pessimism ; irrationalism, anti-humanism and the counter-enlightenment

Over the last few years, Raymond Tallis has published widely acclaimed critiques of influential trends in contemporary thought: for example, Not Saussure - described as 'one of the most brilliant and effective of all rebuttals of post-Saussurean theory' - In Defence of Realism and The Explicit Animal, which demonstrated the baselessness of contemporary accounts of consciousness. Enemies of Hope takes the story further, identifying the themes common to anti-humanist twentieth-century thought and challenging the cult of pessimism that pervades our age. Tallis teases out the many strands of the comfortable, self-congratulatory cynicism of modernist and postmodernist cultural critics, exposing their self-contradictions and their wilful blindness to the distinctive mystery of human nature. The 'pathologisers of culture' and 'the marginalisers of consciousness' are shown to be the enemies of hope - the hope of progress based upon the rational, conscious endeavours of humankind. Perceptive, passionate and often controversial, Raymond Tallis's latest debunking of Kulturkritik explores a host of ethical and philosophical issues central to contemporary thought, raising questions we cannot afford to ignore. After reading Enemies of Hope, those minded to misrepresent mankind in ways that are almost routine amongst humanist intellectuals may be inclined to think twice. By clearing away the hysterical anti-humanism of the twentieth century Enemies of Hope frees us to start thinking constructively about the way forward for humanity in the twenty-first. Front Matter....Pages i-xv Prologue Isaiah Berlin’s ‘Yes-But to the Enlightenment’....Pages 1-68 Front Matter....Pages 69-74 From Apes To Plato....Pages 75-89 Falling into the Ha-Ha....Pages 90-105 The Wisdom of Myths and the Myths of Wisdom....Pages 106-179 A Critique of Cultural Criticism....Pages 180-217 Front Matter....Pages 219-228 Marx and the Historical Unconscious....Pages 229-239 Durkheim and the Social Unconscious....Pages 240-255 Freud and the Instinctual Unconscious....Pages 256-271 The Linguistic Unconscious: Saussure and the Post-Saussureans....Pages 272-289 Unconscious Consciousness: From Behaviourism to Cognitive Psychology....Pages 290-302 Recovering the Conscious Agent....Pages 303-326 Back Matter....Pages 327-354 Front Matter....Pages 355-355 The Conscious Agent and the Hope of Progress....Pages 357-409 Back Matter....Pages 411-499
Perceptive, passionate, and often controversial, Raymond Tallis's latest debunking of Kulturkritik delves into a host of ethical and philosophical issues central to contemporary thought, raising questions we cannot afford to ignore. After reading Enemies of Hope, those minded to misrepresent mankind in ways that are almost routine among humanist intellectuals may be inclined to think twice. By clearing away the "hysterical humanism" of the present century this book frees us to start thinking constructively about the way forward for humanity in the next.
Enemies of Hope identifies the themes common to anti-humanist twentieth-century thought and challenges the cult of pessimism that pervades our age. Tallis teases out the many strands of the comfortable, self-congratulatory cynicism of modernist and postmodernist cultural critics, exposing their self-contradictions and their willful blindness to the distinctive mystery of human nature. The 'pathologizers of culture' and 'the marginalizers of consciousness' are shown to be the enemies of hope - the hope of progress based upon the rational, conscious endeavours of humankind Perceptive, passionate and often controversial, Raymond Tallis's latest debunking of Kulturkritik delves into a host of ethical and philosophical issues central to contemporary thought, raising questions we cannot afford to ignore. After reading Enemies of Hope , those minded to misrepresent mankind in ways that are almost routine amongst humanist intellectuals may be inclined to think twice. By clearing away the 'hysterical humanism' of the present century Enemies of Hope frees us to start thinking constructively about the way forward for humanity in the next. The most honest description of this first part of Enemies of Hope would be that it was a book review that got out of hand: I was asked for 800 words and wrote 30 000.