Liberale tenkere for vår tid

by Lars Peder Nordbakken

I denne boken trekker Lars Peder Nordbakken opp noen hovedlinjer i den liberale idétradisjonen etter andre verdenskrig. I sentrum står ni utvalgte liberale intellektuelle som alle, på sitt vis, har gitt viktige bidrag til vår forståelse av hva det vil si å være liberal. Trådene samles til slutt i en tolkning av tenkernes betydning for den fornyelsen av liberalismen som vi allerede kan skimte konturene av.

Genres: Politics

223 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[Sindre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kort, men god introduksjon til liberale tenkere i det 20. århundre som inspirerer til (og bør følges opp med) videre lesning om tenkerne involvert og liberalismens historie generelt. Boka baserer seg i stor grad på liberale økonomer, hvorav for eksempel Mises, Hayek og Friedman er med.
Boka har likevel flere andre spennende navn som undertegnede ikke kjente til fra før av. Spesielt kapitlene om Wilhelm Röpke, Walter Eucken og Ralf Dahrendorf er verdt å sjekke ut for å få flere syn på hvordan markedsøkonomien kan, og bør, kombineres med humanistiske verdier.
Boka gir også interessante innspill om hva en 'liberal tenker' er, og viser til meningsforskjellene tenkerne imellom for å illustrere meningsmangfoldet i ideologien.
En kritisk tilbakemelding til boka er at flere kvinnelige tenkere kunne vært inkludert for å gi et blikk på de forskjellige bakgrunnene i den liberalistiske bevegelsen. Dette anerkjenner Nordbakken selv i innledningen ved å vise til Lane og Arendt, men han rettferdigjør valget sitt av sine ni tenkere i boka ved å vise til manglende plass for flere. Jeg hadde dog gjerne lest boka med tjue sider ekstra, og to kvinnelige tenkere til.
Boka anbefales for alle som er interesserte i den moderne liberalismens utvikling!

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good introduction to 9 liberal thinkers, some more famous libertarians others less so - maybe because they are not as clearly classical liberals. Nordbakken seems to start out correctly with Classical Liberal thinkers, and is showing well how their thoughts differs too, but the more recent ones that move a bit away from economics seems to be more socially liberal than classically - they are not as easily defined as the early bunch, or at least it seems like the author has more trouble in that. To be fair, I have not read any of the works of Röpke, Eucken, Hoff, Popper or Dahrendorf - so I am not the best to judge their thinking or if the book gives an accurate take of it, so those are definitive somebody I need to look more into as Nordbakken seems to give them lot of praise. Ihave heard about a few of them, so it would be nice to have in mind when I go on my next economics reading spree.

Other than that, it is fairly well written, but gets a bit more technical towards the end - maybe because the modern thought is closer to current politics, which is messier than the more ideal thought and thinking usually is. The book definitely fulfilled its mission to let these thinkers become a tad better known.

[Lea Avi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is brilliant. It is exactly the sort of lively and upbeat introduction to great economists and philosophers there should be more of. While it is pretty short (barely more than 220 pages), it is packed full of information about influencial liberal intellectuals, most of whom many have probably never heard of.

I was already familiar with Hayek and Popper, but I'd never even heard of Wilhelm Röpke or Walter Eucken, and yet they were a huge deal in the post-WWII intellectual climate of Germany (personally I'll also admit I knew next to nothing about Mises or Friedman before reading this).

I should add that the book is far from comprehensive. The author laments in the introduction that he didn't have the time to talk about other thinkers like Raymond Aron, John Rawls, or Luigi Einaudi, who were at least as, if not more influential, than many of the ones included.

I cannot recommend it strongly enough if you are interested in the history of political theory and want an introduction to these thinkers, but sadly I don't think there is an English translation out yet. But if one does get made, read it.