Overview

In The World and Us, Roberto Mangabeira Unger sets out to reinvent philosophy. His central theme is the relation between transcendence and finitude in human experience: how everything in our existence points beyond itself, and yet our mortal lives and the world around us remain enigmas. For Unger, philosophy must be the mind on fire, insisting on our prerogative to speak to what matters most. It must challenge the orthodoxies of specialized fields of inquiry without pretending to be a super-science that solves the riddle of reality. From this perspective, he redefines each of the traditional parts of philosophy, from ontology and epistemology to ethics and politics. He turns moral philosophy into an exploration of the contest between the two most powerful contemporary moral visions: an ethic of self-fashioning and an ethic of human connection. And he transforms political philosophy into a program of deep freedom, showing how to democratize the market economy, energize democratic politics, and give the individual worker and citizen the means to flourish amid permanent innovation.

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9781804293621

Table of Contents

Reviews

A restless visionary striving to realize the highest aspirations of modernity itself. * New York Times *

Through a 49-year career spanning politics, law, social and political theory and philosophy, Unger has put forward a collection of searching inquiries meant to pierce the liberal mythos of necessary progress. Across dozens of books, including the recently published metaphysical tome The World and Us, the Brazilian philosopher has tried to think beyond 20th-century categories through a series of questions. -- Samuel McIlhagga * UnHerd * A renowned philosopher takes on the universe. The World and Us ruminates deeply while maintaining a readability often lacking in specialized, academic philosophy. Unger has written a book for the rest of us. If he seeks our understanding, it's only so we might enjoy a better life ahead. * The Washington Independent Review of Books *

Author Information

Roberto Mangabeira Unger is one of the leading philosophers and social thinkers in the world today. He is active in Brazilian public life and has served twice as Brazil's Minister of Strategic Affairs, charged with developing initiatives that signal a direction for his country. A polymath, he has written widely in legal, political, economic, and moral theory as well as in natural philosophy.

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