Great Books, Bad Arguments:
Republic, Leviathan, and The Communist Manifesto
W. G. Runciman

Cloth | April 2010 | $19.95 / £13.95
138 pp. | 5 x 8

Shopping Cart | Endorsements

Plato's Republic, Hobbes's Leviathan, and Marx's Communist Manifesto are universally acknowledged classics of Western political thought. But how strong are the core arguments on which they base their visions of the good society that they want to bring into being? In this lively and provocative book, W. G. Runciman shows where and why they fail, even after due allowance has been made for the different historical contexts in which they wrote. Plato, Hobbes, and Marx were all passionately convinced that justice, peace, and order could be established if only their teachings were implemented and the right people put into power. But Runciman makes a powerful case to the effect that all three were irredeemably naive in their assumptions about how human societies function and evolve and how human behavior could be changed. Yet despite this, Runciman insists that Republic, Leviathan, and The Communist Manifesto remain great books. Born of righteous anger and frustration, they are masterfully eloquent pleas for better worlds--worlds that Plato, Hobbes, and Marx cannot bring themselves to admit to be unattainable.

W. G. Runciman is a fellow of Trinity College, University of Cambridge. His books include The Social Animal and The Theory of Cultural and Social Selection.

Endorsements:

"Why have Plato's Republic, Hobbes's Leviathan, and Marx's Communist Manifesto retained their enduring appeal, despite their often wildly implausible assumptions about human motivation and political action? No one is more qualified to answer this question than Britain's most eminent sociologist cum philosopher and historian, Garry Runciman. Great Books, Bad Arguments is not only lucid, but like the best detective fiction, keeps the reader guessing until the very end."--Gareth Stedman Jones, King's College, University of Cambridge

"Spirited and provocative."--Ian Shapiro, Yale University

Subject Areas:

• Sociology
• Political Philosophy
• Philosophy
• Comparative Literature
• Political Science and International Relations

Shopping Cart:

For customers in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Asia, and Australia
Cloth: $19.95 ISBN13: 978-0-691-14476-4

For customers in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and India
Cloth: £13.95 ISBN13: 978-0-691-14476-4

Prices subject to change without notice

File created: 11/4/2009

Questions and comments to: webmaster@press.princeton.edu
Princeton University Press