Harmonia i dysonans : Wokół rozmów z oksfordzkimi filozofami
Synopsis
HARMONY AND DISSONANCE: AROUND CONVERSATIONS WITH OXFORD PHILOSOPHERS
This collection consists of six essays that I wrote between 2019 and 2022, and memories of two scholars to whom I owe a great deal. The idea for the book occurred to me after the outbreak of the war between Russia and Ukraine in February 2022. Several months before the invasion of Ukraine I had read John Gray’s Feline Philosophy: Cats and the Meaning of Life (2020). Though this work – like most of Gray’s writings – gave me a lot to think about, I had no intention of putting my thoughts into words. Having published a number of articles on Gray’s philosophy, and above all a substantial monograph, 1 I had decided to confine myself to reading his future publications. Waking up on that memorable morning of 24 February 2022 was like being born into a new world.
Trying to come to terms with what had just transpired, I felt the urge to confront it with Gray’s most recent vision of ethical life. This is how my extended essay John Gray’s ethics and the war in Ukraine, written specially for this collection (the idea for which came to me at the same time), originated.
Chapters
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Acknowledgements .......... 15
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CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION.......... 19
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1. Preliminary remarks .......... 19
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2. Essays: from Berlin and Kołakowski via Hayek, Zuboff, Popper and Gray to Zienkiewicz and the idea of legal holism .......... 21
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3. Memories of Zbigniew Pełczyński and Franciszek Gizbert-Studnicki .......... 38
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4. Coda: honorary doctorates, English aristocrats and Queen Elizabeth II .......... 41
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CHAPTER II. HARMONY AND DISSONANCE: THE VISIONS OF ETHICAL LIFE OF ISAIAH BERLIN AND LESZEK KOŁAKOWSKI .......... 47
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1. Introduction .......... 47
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2. Sources of amazement .......... 52
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3. Two ethical perspectives: astonishing similarity and huge gulf .......... 56
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4. Coda .......... 71
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CHAPTER III. FROM A FREE MARKET TO ZUBOFF’S ‘MACHINE HIVE’? A QUESTION ABOUT HAYEK’S RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE EXPLOSION OF SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM .......... 75
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1. Introduction .......... 75
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2. From birth to explosion of surveillance capitalism .......... 79
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3. Surveillance capitalism and Hayek’s doctrine .......... 92
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4. Coda .......... 103
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CHAPTER IV. WHAT’S LEFT OF POPPER’S POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY .......... 107
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1. Introduction .......... 107
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2. Karl Popper and his wartime achievements .......... 109
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3. Popper’s message in response to the challenges of the modern age .......... 117
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4. The closed society and the open society .......... 118
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5. A critique of conspiracy theory .......... 125
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6. A minimalist theory of democracy .......... 127
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CHAPTER V. ANCIENT HUBRIS, THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND THE EUROPEAN UNION PROJECT: WHY GRAY SUPPORTED BREXIT.......... 137
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1. A gift from fate: first meeting .......... 137
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2. A bone of contention: Brexit .......... 141
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3. Why Gray supported Brexit .......... 147
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CHAPTER VI. JOHN GRAY’S ETHICS AND THE WAR IN UKRAINE .......... 153
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1. War and Gray’s feline philosophy .......... 153
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2. Cats and the meaning of life: from Plato to transhumanists .......... 164
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3. Felis silvestris and homo sapiens .......... 171
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4. The chasm between species .......... 177
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5. Cats and humans in Western and Eastern philosophical traditions .......... 182
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6. War and feline philosophy again .......... 189
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CHAPTER VII. VALUE PLURALISM AND LEGAL HOLISM .......... 203
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1. Introduction .......... 203
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2. Value pluralism .......... 208
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3. Legal holism .......... 215
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4. From value pluralism to legal holism .......... 224
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