The Curious Enlightenement of Professor Caritat: A Novel [Hardcover]

Steven Lukes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 1995

Professor Nicholas Caritat is a scholar of the Englightenment and therefore, he reasons, a man with no role in the political struggle in Militaria, the autocratic state in which he lives. He is wrong. In the space of 24 hours, Caritat is arrested by the police, then liberated by the guerrillas of the Visible Hand. They give him the code name Pangloss and send him on a mission which only a philosopher could undertake: to find the best of all possible worlds. This book is a whirlwind journey through a series of imagined political landscapes where 18th-century ideas confront late-20th-century concerns. Caritat, a middle-aged Candide, walks naively through worlds of ideological extremes, equipped with only a small travelling bag and a knowledge of such thinkers as Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant and Hume. As he investigates the neighbouring countries of Utilitaria, Communitaria and Libertaria, Caritat encounters afresh questions he had long since considered settled: what are the rights of the individual when, in the calculator-ruled Benthamite world, the concept has been ruled obsolete; what is the fate of free speech in a militantly multicultural society; and where does civil responsibility figure in a state ruled by the free market? Cut loose from the confines of the ivory tower, this wandering professor is made to confront the perplexed state of modern thinking, the value of history, and, above all, the continuing need for a just and humane social order. This book presents a near-comprehensive survey of Western political philosophy in a comedy of ideas. Steven Lukes is the author of "Emile Durkheim: His Life and Work", "Power: A Radical View" and "What is Left?".

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lukes, a professor of sociology, pays ample homage to the Enlightenment, modeling this light and lovely satire on Candide. Not many pages into the book, its hero, Professor Nicholas Caritat, a prominent scholar of the Enlightenment, is given the nickname Dr. Pangloss. Having been arrested by the military junta of Militaria on the grounds that his work foments ``optimism,'' Caritat has just been sprung from jail by members of the Visible Hand, a guerrilla group. The Hand gives him a mission: he must find ``grounds for Optimism'' and ``the best possible world.'' Caritat visits a string of countries--not to be found in our atlases--that are founded on (and warped by) various political philosophies. A citizen of Utilitaria informs him that ``a high suicide rate, provided the suicides are appropriately distributed, can make a real contribution to the overall sum of happiness.'' Wherever he goes, the good Professor trips all over the cherished beliefs of the citizenry, landing himself, and those around him, in hot water. In Communitaria, where political correctness has been carried to an absurd logical conclusion, Caritat finds himself facing charges of sexual harassment in front of the country's ``Body of Gender.'' In the laissez-faire paradise of Libertaria, it isn't long before Caritat finds himself on the street with the homeless. Lukes is more than generous with the breadcrumbs of political philosophy, but the tale never becomes dull or bookish. He writes with great humor and confidence as the insouciant Caritat is buffeted from one false Utopia to the next. Toward the end, Caritat gets the point and expresses his distrust of Utopias in a moving letter to his children, part of which reads: ``Another thing I have noticed is that everyone I have met so far seems to have stopped learning. They seem as if trapped in their language and their world and quite closed to one another's.'' Though not the best of all possible philosophical satires, Lukes's imaginative intellect and playful tone make this one as good as we are likely to see for quite a while.

Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Nicholas Caritat, a modern-day professor and scholar of the Enlightenment who converses mentally with Voltaire and Condorcet, wants to avoid the political struggle in Militaria, the police state where he lives. Though arrested by the police, he is liberated by guerrillas who dub him Pangloss because they want him to find the best of all possible worlds. He travels to Utilitaria, Libertaria, Communitaria, and Egalitaria, finding through misadventures that none of them is ideal because alone, each lacks some of the good qualities of the others. Lukes (political and social theory, European Univ. Inst., Florence) is a reputable scholar, and Voltaire's Candide is obviously the model for his examination of the merits of social theories. Put this on the shelf next to Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World (LJ 9/1/94) and enjoy learning something when you read. Recommended for larger public libraries.
Ann Irvine, Montgomery Cty. P.L.s., Md.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 261 pages
• Publisher: Verso (October 17, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1859849482
• ISBN-13: 978-1859849484
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,858,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars funny, moving and thoughtful, worth rereading umpteen times, January 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Curious Enlightenement of Professor Caritat: A Novel (Hardcover)

It's a fictional critical comments on major schoold of political philosophies in the West at the end of the second millennium AD from the stand point of good, old Enlightenment. I fell in love with it with my first reading, have translated and published it in Thai last year, and used it to teach my political philosophy courses with great success and general enjoyment of the students. I learn more with each time that I reread it for my classes. Strongly recommended for anyone bored with theory and philosophy. It will change your intellectual life !

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's a book with a touch of both imagination and reality., July 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Curious Enlightenment of Professor Caritat: A Comedy of Ideas (Paperback)

Any people can read this exciting book-- with or without interest in philosophy. Steven Lukes has the talent to make the readers feel the wonders of imagination, to escape the reality for awhile. At the same time, Lukes makes the readers learn the reality of the different societies we live in. The book is filled with ideas that let us judge whether a perfect world really exists or not.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's Rare You Find Something This Good, March 11, 2000

By 

Sean T. (New York, U.S.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Curious Enlightenment of Professor Caritat: A Comedy of Ideas (Paperback)

I'm very happy to have read this book and probably will again. It's humorous, critical, reflective and gives a very entertaining perspective on Utopian Philosophies and what they value. I'd reccomend it to almost anyone interested in political theory and philosophy that enjoys a good satire.