Customer Reviews

Hypocrisy and Integrity : Machiavelli, Rousseau, and the Ethics of Politics

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Ruth Grant has written a book that challenges many of the beliefs that have given form to our most important political debates. Grant defines a hypocrite as "a person who pretends to be morally better than he is for the sake of some advantage to himself." She starts by claiming there has been a failure by contemporary scholars to take hypocrisy in politics seriously. Why has this happened? Because part of the liberal project is to make politics "honest", reasoned, and transparent.

To be fair, Grant is not opposed to honesty and rationality. The point is that we demand too much rationality in politics by insisting that political debate and portrayal of issues and candidates is nothing more than information. Such rationalism is itself unreasonable, and creates pressures that promote lying and misrepresentation.

I was looking for a book which could tell me whether it is possible to be both idealist and pragmatist at the same time.
This book seems to be the answer.
I havenot read it yet, but I liked its philosophical premises and language.
I feel this book will be a good one.