George Grant and the Twilight of Justice / / Joan O'Donovan.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999
• VerfasserIn: O'Donovan, Joan,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2019]; ©1984
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: Heritage
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (208 p.)
• Other title: Frontmatter --; Contents --; Preface --; Introduction: The Unique Contribution of George Grant --; 1. Background to the Problem of History: Grant's Writings from 1943 to 1959 --; 2. Philosophy in the Mass Age: A Struggle for Synthesis --; 3. Dissolution of the Liberal Synthesis: Grant's Rejection of 'History' --; 4. The Vanishing of Tradition: Whither Political Philosophy? --; 5. The Tragic Fate of Modem Man: History as a Religious Problem --; 6. The Challenge of Historicism: Beyond Nietzsche and Reidegger --; 7. Denouement: The Twilight of Justice --; 8. Summary and Criticism: The Problem of History in Theological Perspective --; Bibliography --; Index
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9781487578428; 9783110490947
• DOI: 10.3138/9781487578428
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Joan O'Donovan.

Modern men regard themselves as essentially historical beings who are free to make themselves and their world through the power of modern science and technology. In these conceptions of history and freedom which dominate modern thinking lies a dilemma. Joan O’Donovan explores George Grant’s thought about this dilemma and the possibilities of political action and reflection in our age.She finds that Grant regards man’s historical self-consciousness at the basis of the crisis in the public realm, for it excludes the formative Western traditions of freedom and justice which are rooted in Biblical Christianity and Greek philosophy. The problem posed for political philosophy today by the eclipse of this Western heritage is the controlling problem of history in Grant’s work.The author examines the various phases of Grant’s formulation of the problem of history over several decades in light of his intellectual influences and public involvements. She shows how his early patriotic and conservative allegiances give way in the ‘50s to a concern with recovering the Western tradition of freedom in tis theological and philosophical unity, an how this concern receives its most optimist statement in the cautious Hegelianism of Philosophy in the Mass Age (1959). She looks at the dissolution of Grant’s liberal synthesis under the impact of the writings of Leo Strauss and interprets the ironies and ambiguities of Grant’s pessimism in the essays of Technology and Empire (1969) and English-Speaking Justice (1974) which were inspired by his reading of Nietzsche and Heidegger, and draws out the elements of his tragic historical vision. Finally, she subjects Grant’s thinking about history to theological criticism, setting out some theoretical alternatives to historicism within Christian political thought.