Ernest Gellner and Modernity

by Michael Lessnoff

Overview

Providing a comprehensive discussion of the polymathic writer and thinker Ernest Gellner, this book presents a lucid exposition of his thought, making clear both his major contributions to the diverse areas in which he worked and the underlying consistency and unity of his thought. Examined is how Gellner’s analysis of the social, economic, and cognitive forms intrinsic to modernity carries forward the work of Max Weber and Karl Popper and also enables him to develop a profound and original philosophy of science which is at the same time a political philosophy.

Michael Lessnoff is reader in politics at the University of Glasgow. He is the author of The Structure of Social Science, Social Contract, and The Spirit of Capitalism and the Protestant Ethic. He lives in Glasgow, Scotland.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780708316849
Publisher:	University of Wales Press
Publication date:	02/28/2002
Series:	University of Wales Press - Political Philosophy Now Series
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 5.60(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Michael Lessnoff is Reader in Politics at the University of Glasgow. He is the author of The Structure of Social Science (1973), Social Contract (1986), The Spirit of Capitalism and the Protestant Ethic: An Enquiry into the Weber Thesis (1994) and Political Philosophers of the Twentieth Century (1998).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
 
1  Introduction
2  Theory of History
3  Nationalism
4  Politics in Modern Society
5  Islam
6  Wittgenstein and Linguistic Philosophy
7  Freud and Psychoanalysis
8  Relativism, Cognitive Ethics and the Philosophy of Science
9  Ernest Gellner's Achievement in Perspective
 
Notes
Bibliography
Index