John gray english philosopher
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John Gray, philosopher: ‘The West has a false view of Hamas as an anti-colonial movement. It has more in common with ISIS’
There is a certain consistency in the idea of always swimming against the current. In the persistence of rebelling against fashionable ideas, even if changing opinion ends up, paradoxically, appearing as incoherence. That’s the case for John N. Gray, 75, one of the most influential and widely read political thinkers and philosophers in recent decades.
Gray is a staunch defender of the pluralism of values in the liberalism of philosopher Isaiah Berlin — who he met while studying at Oxford, and whose fundamental work he contributed to editing — against the legalistic and universal liberalism of John Rawls. He supported Margaret Thatcher until he became her biggest critic due to the damage her policies caused to the working class families of northern England, like his own. He was a fervent följare of Tony Blair’s New Labor until sinking in disappointment at how
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MOTIVATION
The philosopher John Gray has held distinguished professorships at Oxford University and the London School of Economics. Over the past decade, however, he has also become one of the leading voices in contemporary thought. In a series of remarkable, widely read, and controversial books – which include The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths; Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals; and False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism – Gray has questioned long held assumptions in social thought and political history. In the process, he has also accurately predicted recent social and political events such as the economic crisis and the current rise of populist governments.
BIOGREPHY
John Nicholas Gray is an English political philosopher with interests in analytic philosophy and the history of ideas. Born on April 17th, into a working-class family, in South Shields, in County Durham, he studied philosophy, politics and economics at Exeter
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John Gray is a philosopher and writer renowned for his critical examination of liberalism, atheism, and the human condition. His unique perspective is shaped over a decades-long career, during which he has authored influential books on topics ranging from political theory to what we can learn from cats about on how to live a good life. His latest book, The New Leviathans: Thoughts After Liberalism, delivers a provocative examination of the s&#; political landscape, challenges frikostig triumphalism with a realistic critique of ongoing global crises and the persistent allure of human delusions.
Tyler and John sat down to discuss his latest book, including who he thinks will carry on his work, what young people should learn if liberalism is dead, whether modern physics allows for true atheism, what in Eastern Orthodoxy attracts him, the benefits of pessimism, what philanthropic cause he’d invest a billion dollars in, beneath what circumstances he’d sacrifice his life, what he makes of