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POLITICAL THEORY, THE FOUNDATION OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY THOUGHT. By Arnold Brecht. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1959. Pp. xviii, 603. $12.00.

POLITICAL THEORY, THE FOUNDATION OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY THOUGHT. By Arnold Brecht. Princeton:... BOOKS REVIEWED POLITICAL THEORY, TH E FOUNDATION OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY THOUGHT. By Arnold Brecht. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1959. Pp. xviii, 603. $12.00. Many intellectual currents have coalesced in Professor Brecht's volume bu t the moral conflicts of the present era provide its special impetus. Nineteenth century political thought had worked out a set of propositions as the basis of governmental action which appeared morally persuasive. Parallel with this development was the faith in the possibility of a scientific ethic grounded on the doctrine of evolution or established by canons drawn from physics. In large areas of the West after World War I these political postulates were denied or reversed, and science, as currently understood, found itself powerless to pro- nounce any moral judgment on actions which had widespread human suffering as their necessary concomitant. Brecht sees the present critical state of affairs not in terms of democracy as against the forms of totalitarianism, for ther e appears to him to be no scientifi- cally valid standard by which to measure the claims of either side. He holds the real crisis to lie in the fact that scientific theory itself is of th e view that the problem of value http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png American Journal of Jurisprudence Oxford University Press

POLITICAL THEORY, THE FOUNDATION OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY THOUGHT. By Arnold Brecht. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1959. Pp. xviii, 603. $12.00.

Cairns, Huntington
American Journal of Jurisprudence , Volume 5 (1) – Jan 1, 1960
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Publisher
Oxford University Press
Copyright
© 1960 by The University of Notre Dame
ISSN
0065-8995
eISSN
2049-6494
DOI
10.1093/ajj/5.1.139
Publisher site
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Abstract

BOOKS REVIEWED POLITICAL THEORY, TH E FOUNDATION OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY THOUGHT. By Arnold Brecht. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1959. Pp. xviii, 603. $12.00. Many intellectual currents have coalesced in Professor Brecht's volume bu t the moral conflicts of the present era provide its special impetus. Nineteenth century political thought had worked out a set of propositions as the basis of governmental action which appeared morally persuasive. Parallel with this development was the faith in the possibility of a scientific ethic grounded on the doctrine of evolution or established by canons drawn from physics. In large areas of the West after World War I these political postulates were denied or reversed, and science, as currently understood, found itself powerless to pro- nounce any moral judgment on actions which had widespread human suffering as their necessary concomitant. Brecht sees the present critical state of affairs not in terms of democracy as against the forms of totalitarianism, for ther e appears to him to be no scientifi- cally valid standard by which to measure the claims of either side. He holds the real crisis to lie in the fact that scientific theory itself is of th e view that the problem of value

Journal

American Journal of Jurisprudence – Oxford University Press

Published: Jan 1, 1960

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