Word: idealists
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...impatient an idealist to be much of a political animal. He also knew too much history to be taken in by demagogues and dictators. In 1920 he brought out what became by far his most successful book, An Outline of History, a sweeping two-volume narrative of human progress. Outline is a kind of bible of social engineering. Written in a single year of disciplined enthusiasm, it starts with cavemen and ends by pointing toward a New Jerusalem achieved through knowledge and World Federalism-a vision he constantly conjured up to dispel his chronic pessimism. A colleague recalls Wells during...
...figures, dressed for the humid summer in silk shirts, knee breeches and buckle shoes, rested against the Monument wall inside the wide circle of flags. One of the figures was the ghost of Thomas Jefferson, that noble idealist who symbolizes the dream of the American Revolution; the other was the ghost of Alexander Hamilton, who, perhaps more than any other single person, was the architect of the modern American system of government...
Kowlakowski does not assume a particularized knowledge of dialectical materialism or post-Marxist debate, but he demands familiarity with the basic philosophical issues. The idealist versus materialist argument, the role of praxis, the creation of ideology, the objectivity of labor all crop up time and again in his various case studies...
...applicability most have long given up suspecting. To take his own best illustration, Kolakowski turns the story of Jacob and Esau into a lesson on the ways of fabricating political truths. The naive realist who believes in the objectivity of his birthright cannot defend it against the pragmatic idealist who knows that truth lives in opinions, not in acts, and who can manipulate surrounding thought accordingly. Other tales Kolakowski investigates are those of Noah, Ruth and Cain. The subtitles suffice as index to the mind here at work. Respectively they are "The Temptation to Solidarity," "The Dialogue between Love...
Unlike Nora, a contemporary feminist realizes the larger dimensions of her rebellion. Unlike Nora, she is not alone in her struggle and not an individualist idealist. She has the force of a history of public outcry to fire her collective faith. And because of this, she can dismiss Nora's dilemma without too much agonizing...