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Cosmopolis: The Hidden Agenda of Modernity Paperback – November 1, 1992

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Stephen Toulmin (Author)
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Stephen Toulmin (Author)
ISBN-13: 978-0226808383 ISBN-10: 0226808386 Edition: 1st
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Cosmopolis: The Hidden Agenda of Modernity + Main Currents of Western Thought: Readings in Western Europe Intellectual History from the Middle Ages to the Present, Fourth Edition
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 235 pages
  • Publisher: The University of Chicago Press; 1st edition (November 1992)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0226808386
  • ISBN-13: 978-0226808383
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #104,586 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 87 people found the following review helpful
Understanding the 50's and More
By A Customer on March 17, 2000
Format: Paperback
Toulmin does an above average job of informing the postmodern thinker regarding the historical rootage of many of his or her cherished beliefs. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and even sent off quotes to a friend who is doing a cross-disciplinary dissertation. Although it deals with "scientific" issues, Toulmin actually does a great job showing us how we came to think in some of the very general ways that way we do.
As an adjunct professor trained in the Humanities, I can only wish I had read this 10 years ago when it came out! For anybody who ever desired to understand why and how 'postmodernism' is a reaction to the 1950's, this book is must reading. His basic thesis is simple and elegant; though a philosopher like Descartes may postulate timeless truth, the fact of the matter is that those 'timeless' truths are rooted in a specific historical situation and its limited sociology of knowledge. (In this case, the Thirty Years War which ravaged Europe from 1618-1648.) Western philosophy and science has been traditionally associated with the Quest for Certainty that initiated with Descartes. However, Toulmin shows how that was not necessarily the only viable means to achieve certifiable knowledge/science. Descartes was a child of the early 17th Century and the radical uncertainty that ravaged all of Europe during the Thirty Years War. The pricetag of achieving some manner of certainty to overcome the social chaos of that time was that the European academic community turned its back on the more eclectic, inductive, and humane tradition of the Renaissance thinkers like Montagne and Erasmus. This, as Toulmin shows, was not only tragic, but very limiting to all of Western Philosophy/Science/Culture for about 300 years.Read more ›
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Who knew Freud and Marx were Descartes' offspring?
By David Greusel on December 12, 2006
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Wow! Toulmin takes the reader on an exhaustive tour of the modernist program, tracing the roots of modern thought way, way back to the 16th century...and before. He makes a compelling case, with some interesting side trips, that modern thought grew out of the religious wars of the early 1600s and the desire for non-sectarian certainty that those wars created. If that doesn't make sense, you should read this book. Fascinating history, and a broad sweep of science and philosophy make this book quite readable, though neither short nor easy. Still, it goes a long way toward explaining why the ground seemed to shift under our feet around 1960. It was an earthquake that was as inevitable as it was overdue. I highly recommend this book to any serious student of culture.
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38 of 43 people found the following review helpful
A Landmark Study on the History of Modernity
By CHONG EU CHOONG on April 3, 2000
Format: Paperback
It has been said that to understand one's present, study the past. And this is exactly the strategy used by Toulmin in trying to make sense of our postmodern present. By studying the trajectory of modernity from it's inception in the Renaissance to the mid-1979s, Toulmin has succeded in demonstrating the "decline and fall" of modernity's worldview.
The most important chapter of the book, for me personally, was the final chapter which argues for the need to adopt what he calls "skeptical rationality" rather than the foundational rationality of modernity.
All in all an important study of modernity which should be read by any one who is interested in the zeitgeist of the present.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
For the philosophy beginner...
By Mindy on November 6, 2006
Format: Paperback
Cosmopolis brings it all together! Dreary and disconnected readings of Aquinas, Montaigne and Descartes take on new significance with Toulmin's "revised account" of Modernism. By contextualizing prominent figures, Toulmin provides the novice reader with the opportunity to enjoy and appreciate the philosophical contribution to the historical idiom. His witty, often humorous discourse is essentially readable and familiar. Philosophy can be tedious and intimidating, Toulmin proves it both fundamental and accessible.
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22 of 27 people found the following review helpful
On the Madness of the West
By Saul Boulschett on March 20, 2004
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
and How it Ended up Creating the World as We Know It_ could have been another title of this superb book that is written with cogency, urgency, and a real desire to get across the reader what the author has to say. The synopsis of the story is as another reveiwer has already described below: namely that the kick-off of modernity with Descartes' "I think therefore I am" was not something that popped out of the blue of his profound brain but a working hypothesis in search of a foundation of certainty---to be applied to theology promarily so as to end the sort of savagery that was devastating Europe in the name of religion during his lifetime (the 30 Years War).
Toulmin contextualizes Newton's discovery and Hobbes' political philosophy (briefly but enough to make the connection) in the light of this quest for certainty that held so many of the best minds in Europe spellbound for all these years. With a pace that won't let up, Toulmin takes you on a tour of Europe's social and intellectual transformation: going from poverty and social schism and a sense of doom in 1610 to a confident, unquestionable, and unquestioned, established cosmopolitical paradigm of order that was foisted onto social and political (thus also art) agendas.
So far so good but it sounds like something you've heard before doesn''t it? That's when this book takes off:
Toulmin digs at the 'subtexts' of these common-knowledge events to show you some very interesting presuppositions (seemingly innocuous at first) inherent in these great scientific discoveries that could not but lead to the institutionalization of racism, sexism, and nationalisms that had such traumatic consequences in the 20th century, with continuing severe after-shocks today.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

I liked it a lot

I liked it a lot. Got it for a college class, and it really makes you rethink the term "Modern" when used beyond its meaning "now" or "contemporary times"

Published 2 months ago by Mark Twain
Makes a lot of sense

This book is a must read! I had to read it for my Global Order class and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is curious about Western Civilization's development.

Published 13 months ago by Greg
really fun read

Stephen Toulmin provides an alternate reading of Modernity's alleged historical path in order to re-contextualize the agenda of the modern Enlightenment project. Read more

Published 17 months ago by Scott Cowan
Excellent Beginning/Weak Closure

Having previously read, enjoyed, and admired three other books by Toulmin (on logic, reasoning & argumentation), I had looked forward to reading Cosmopolis (humanities). Read more

Published 21 months ago by Dennis B. Mulcare
Exemplary scholarship

This is a fantastic piece of scholarship - one of those rare gems that is reasoned, erudite, moderate and illuminating, a scholarly page-turner that altered my worldview for the... Read more

Published on February 16, 2012 by Amazon Customer
An embarrassment

I picked up this book because of Toulmin's reputation and because I was interested in what an Anglophone philosopher might say about postmodernism. Read more

Published on December 13, 2010 by Stephen Ferg
Good in almost all parts

Stephen Toulmin was, everyone is agreed, a vastly learned nice guy. And he was also a great admirer of the benchmark 'learned nice guy' in the western intellectual tradition,... Read more

Published on February 15, 2010 by S. Matthews
excellent book.

The book is a inspiring discussion on modernity and basic aspects of our view of world. It's an essential book in time of the pos-modernity challenge.

Published on March 15, 2007 by L. Rust
Brilliant!

This book is very useful for anyone who tries to understand the phenomenon of modernity, it origin, and its weaknesses.

Published on November 10, 2006 by Byzantium

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