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The Liberal Mind
Kenneth Minogue offers a brilliant and provocative exploration of liberalism in the Western world today: its roots and its influences, its present state, and its prospects in the new century.
The Liberal Mind
limns the taxonomy of a way of thinking that constitutes the very consciousness of most people in most Western countries.
While few—especially in America—embrace the description of liberal, still, Minogue argues, most Americans and most Europeans behave as liberals. At least they are the heirs of what Minogue describes as "the triumph of an enlarged, flexible, and pragmatic version of liberalism."
But what, precisely, is liberalism? Or, more accurately, can liberalism be defined precisely? Minogue attempts to answer both questions. "The Liberal Mind attempts to uncover the philosophy of liberalism and lay bare its implications. What is Man? How does he think and feel? What is the place of Reason in human affairs? How should men live? What is politics, and what is it for? These are the questions which liberalism both asks and answers. The answers supply a technique of living, which is a utilitarian moral guide: yet the great advantage claimed for this code is that it is scientific. Because of this claim, liberalism is forced into a series of moral and political evasions, both doctrines and emotional habits of thought. These are dissected in The Liberal Mind."
The past two centuries have been characterized, in the West at least, by "the fury of old ideological battles . . . such as: A planned economy, or free enterprise? Individual thrift, or social services? Free trade, or protection?" These battles have largely been completed—and, many would say, have been won by the champions of, respectively, free enterprise, individual thrift, and free trade.
By examining the larger implications of the concept of liberalism, Minogue offers fresh perspective on the political currents that continue to shape governments and policy in the Western world.
Kenneth Minogue is Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of London.
While few—especially in America—embrace the description of liberal, still, Minogue argues, most Americans and most Europeans behave as liberals. At least they are the heirs of what Minogue describes as "the triumph of an enlarged, flexible, and pragmatic version of liberalism."
But what, precisely, is liberalism? Or, more accurately, can liberalism be defined precisely? Minogue attempts to answer both questions. "The Liberal Mind attempts to uncover the philosophy of liberalism and lay bare its implications. What is Man? How does he think and feel? What is the place of Reason in human affairs? How should men live? What is politics, and what is it for? These are the questions which liberalism both asks and answers. The answers supply a technique of living, which is a utilitarian moral guide: yet the great advantage claimed for this code is that it is scientific. Because of this claim, liberalism is forced into a series of moral and political evasions, both doctrines and emotional habits of thought. These are dissected in The Liberal Mind."
The past two centuries have been characterized, in the West at least, by "the fury of old ideological battles . . . such as: A planned economy, or free enterprise? Individual thrift, or social services? Free trade, or protection?" These battles have largely been completed—and, many would say, have been won by the champions of, respectively, free enterprise, individual thrift, and free trade.
By examining the larger implications of the concept of liberalism, Minogue offers fresh perspective on the political currents that continue to shape governments and policy in the Western world.
Kenneth Minogue is Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of London.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
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About the author
Kenneth Minogue
41 books32 followersPolitical theorist who was Emeritus Professor of Political Science and Honorary Fellow at the London School of Economics.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 15, 2014
A Slim Volume, but Quite a Chunk to Digest
The Liberal Mind, dating from 1963, is a relatively early text by the conservative political theorist Kenneth Minogue, but this does not mean to say that it has become obsolete. Quite on the contrary, I would say.
In this little book, Minogue tries to explain liberal thinking and the different directions it has taken. In this context, it is especially the first chapter, “The Anatomy of Liberalism”, which is interesting. Among other things, Minogue argues that liberalism, which he clearly sees as an ideology, is founded on a reductionist and somewhat bloodless view on man in that liberal thinkers tend to assume that man’s actions and behaviour are influenced by utilitarian deliberation, and he argues that concepts like honour, the quest for “truth” and altruism may also play a role in determining what course of action a person may or may not take. Of course, one may counter this argument by saying that honour and an obligation to what is true may also be subsumed under the heading of “capital” with the help of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of social and cultural capital. That means that somebody who is, for example, concerned about his or her honour might act rationally in a society in which honour has a high standing as social capital. Increasing one’s honour may therefore be a utilitarian course of action under certain circumstances.
Nevertheless, for whatever minor inconsistencies Minogue’s arguments may contain, his overall analysis of liberalism, especially his distinction between the libertarian and the salvationist elements of liberalism, sounds convincing to me. Whereas the libertarian branch of liberalism is concerned with the individual’s right to pursue their own interests within a framework of laws, the salvationist branch of liberalism leads into a cul-de-sac since it proclaims a common good and common goals for society, which must be reached in order to make life fuller, richer, fairer for every single person on earth. In salvationist terms, conflicts between individuals or groups of individuals become political problems that can be solved by the government and by a rational reconciliation of interests, and part of the solution is to educate individuals in a way that makes them realize that they have to sacrifice personal advantages for a common good. It is quite obvious that the salvationist branch of liberalism will, in its worst case, more or less culminate in a kind of utopia in which a world state will exercise the prerogative of interpretation of reality and, more importantly, what reality should be like and in which individuals will submit to an egalitarian ideology whose aim is to fulfil every person’s “needs” at the cost of the individual’s liberty to pursue their own interests and of the retainment of the sphere of private life with its chances, responsibilities and dangers.
We are so used to the tenets of salvationism today that the following statement by Minogue might serve as an eye-opener for most of us: “A great mistake has been to imagine that an ideology consists of a set of answers to neutral questions; whereas in fact it consists in the questions.” (page 99)
“The Liberal Mind” is not at all an easy book to read, and my recommendation is actually to read it twice, because it is really worth doing so in order to realize the inherent dangers of investing governments with more and more power just because they promise us to make our lives safer, fairer and easier.
The Liberal Mind, dating from 1963, is a relatively early text by the conservative political theorist Kenneth Minogue, but this does not mean to say that it has become obsolete. Quite on the contrary, I would say.
In this little book, Minogue tries to explain liberal thinking and the different directions it has taken. In this context, it is especially the first chapter, “The Anatomy of Liberalism”, which is interesting. Among other things, Minogue argues that liberalism, which he clearly sees as an ideology, is founded on a reductionist and somewhat bloodless view on man in that liberal thinkers tend to assume that man’s actions and behaviour are influenced by utilitarian deliberation, and he argues that concepts like honour, the quest for “truth” and altruism may also play a role in determining what course of action a person may or may not take. Of course, one may counter this argument by saying that honour and an obligation to what is true may also be subsumed under the heading of “capital” with the help of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of social and cultural capital. That means that somebody who is, for example, concerned about his or her honour might act rationally in a society in which honour has a high standing as social capital. Increasing one’s honour may therefore be a utilitarian course of action under certain circumstances.
Nevertheless, for whatever minor inconsistencies Minogue’s arguments may contain, his overall analysis of liberalism, especially his distinction between the libertarian and the salvationist elements of liberalism, sounds convincing to me. Whereas the libertarian branch of liberalism is concerned with the individual’s right to pursue their own interests within a framework of laws, the salvationist branch of liberalism leads into a cul-de-sac since it proclaims a common good and common goals for society, which must be reached in order to make life fuller, richer, fairer for every single person on earth. In salvationist terms, conflicts between individuals or groups of individuals become political problems that can be solved by the government and by a rational reconciliation of interests, and part of the solution is to educate individuals in a way that makes them realize that they have to sacrifice personal advantages for a common good. It is quite obvious that the salvationist branch of liberalism will, in its worst case, more or less culminate in a kind of utopia in which a world state will exercise the prerogative of interpretation of reality and, more importantly, what reality should be like and in which individuals will submit to an egalitarian ideology whose aim is to fulfil every person’s “needs” at the cost of the individual’s liberty to pursue their own interests and of the retainment of the sphere of private life with its chances, responsibilities and dangers.
We are so used to the tenets of salvationism today that the following statement by Minogue might serve as an eye-opener for most of us: “A great mistake has been to imagine that an ideology consists of a set of answers to neutral questions; whereas in fact it consists in the questions.” (page 99)
“The Liberal Mind” is not at all an easy book to read, and my recommendation is actually to read it twice, because it is really worth doing so in order to realize the inherent dangers of investing governments with more and more power just because they promise us to make our lives safer, fairer and easier.
April 23, 2014
This is not a light read. It's a detailed analysis of the underlying flawed arguments of modern liberalism. Minogue makes so many great points exposing the erroneous basis of liberal argument, it's impossible to list them all here. Here is just one example from page 18: "Liberals are prepared to sacrifice much for a peaceful and cooperative world order, which can only come about by the exercise of great self-control and a talent for compromise. Liberal social theory is frequently an attempt to discover the social arrangements which most encourages this kind of behavior...it is also a special kind of hope", since it's impossible to superimpose this kind of moral ideal on the people of the world at large without the use of great force and never-ending diligence, which he describes this way on page 20, "Liberalism has come more and more to see politics simply as a technical activity like any other. We first decide what it is that we want, how we think our society ought to be organized, and then we seek the means to our end. It means, for example, that all widespread problems turn into political problems, inviting a solution by state activity. Faced with backsliding, governments must coerce. They must control the climate of thought in which people live, and if necessary engage in large scale and protracted repression in order to keep a public consistent with what it seemed to want at some time in the past." Over and over, page after page, Minogue gets to the heart of the liberal mind and its inherent flaws and contradictions with detailed logical analysis and reason.
October 22, 2016
This was a brilliant read which is highly recommended for anyone wanting to both understand the history of liberalism and look for a book that deconstructs the ideology. Minogue writes in a cool, detached manner which is also highly sarcastic at times. I was looking forward to sitting down and absorbing his writings. He gets underneath the skin of liberalism time and time again and is able to unmask its presuppositions. Furthermore, he is able to link liberalism to other movements which are either derivatives of liberalism or which are counter-cultures. There was so much insight in this book and even though it began to go off the point a little at times, even then the object of the study was never far away. A must-read for anyone interested in liberalism.
July 12, 2020
An interesting journey through the liberal mindset.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews