Equality by Default: An Essay on Modernity as Confinement
by Philippe Bénéton
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For most of our contemporaries, to speak of modernity is to think immediately of liberty, equality, and democracy -- and to assume that all is well. But things are not so simple. For while the culture of modernity has spread gradually throughout the West for roughly two hundred years, it accelerated in the 1960s in such a way as to undergo a subtle transformation. Hence the paradox of the world we live in: by all appearances the "rights of man" have emerged triumphant, yet at the same time show more they have been emptied of substance because of their radicalization. Modern man finds himself isolated and ensnared. By right, his autonomy should strengthen him; but in fact, he has been dispossessed of himself. The great artifice of our time is to give conformism the mask of liberty. Philippe Beneton, a prominent French conservative, has long meditated on Tocqueville, and Equality by Default is quintessentially Tocquevillian in that it does not offer a partisan polemic but rather paints a picture of contemporary life -- a picture that is also a guide for those who have a difficult time "seeing" contemporary liberalism for what it is. Artfully translated by Ralph Hancock, Equality by Default offers a unique and strikingly insightful account of the late-modern mind. Book jacket. show lessTags
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Author Information
Philippe Beneton is professor of law and political science at the University of Rennes in France.
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Equality by Default: An Essay on Modernity as Confinement
- Original title
- De l'égalité par défaut. Essai sur l'enfermement moderne
- Original language*
- Français
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
- Genres
- Politics and Government, Nonfiction, Philosophy, General Nonfiction, Sociology
- DDC/MDS
- 320.51 — Social sciences Political science Political science (Politics and government) Political ideologies Liberalism
- LCC
- JC574 .B4613 — Political Science Political theory Political theory. The state. Theories of the state Purpose, functions, and relations of the state
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- 54
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- (4.00)
- Languages
- Catalan, English, French
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 4
