The New Science of Politics (Walgreen Foundation Lectures) [Paperback]

Eric Voegelin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 1987 | ISBN-10: 0226861147 | ISBN-13: 978-0226861142

"Thirty-five years ago few could have predicted that The New Science of Politics would be a best-seller by political theory standards. Compressed within the Draconian economy of the six Walgreen lectures is a complete theory of man, society, and history, presented at the most profound and intellectual level. . . . Voegelin's [work] stands out in bold relief from much of what has passed under the name of political science in recent decades. . . . The New Science is aptly titled, for Voegelin makes clear at the outset that a 'return to the specific content' of premodern political theory is out of the question. . . . The subtitle of the book, An Introduction, clearly indicates that The New Science of Politics is an invitation to join the search for the recovery of our full humanity."—From the new Foreword by Dante Germino

"This book must be considered one of the most enlightening essays on the character of European politics that has appeared in half a century. . . . This is a book powerful and vivid enough to make agreement or disagreement with even its main thesis relatively unimportant."—Times Literary Supplement

"Voegelin . . . is one of the most distinguished interpreters to Americans of the non-liberal streams of European thought. . . . He brings a remarkable breadth of knowledge, and a historical imagination that ranges frequently into brilliant insights and generalizations."—Francis G. Wilson, American Political Science Review

"This book is beautifully constructed . . . his erudition constantly brings a startling illumination."—Martin Wright, International Affairs

"A ledestar to thinking men who seek a restoration of political science on the classic and Christian basis . . . a significant accomplishment in the retheorization of our age."—Anthony Harrigan, Christian Century

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Eric Voegelin (1901-1985) was Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at the time of his death. He is the author of numerous books in addition to his major five-volume work Order and History.

Product Details

• Paperback: 210 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (August 15, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226861147
• ISBN-13: 978-0226861142
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.6 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #178,523 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 52 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Gnosticism and Political Religions. January 24, 2002

By New Age of Barbarism

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_Modernity Without Restraint_ presents three of Erik Voegelin's essays on the modern political religions, including Marxism, National Socialism, Hegelianism, Nietzschianism, and Heideggerianism. To Voegelin, these thinkers are all best described as "gnostics" and in their effort to create God's Kingdom on Earth seek to "immanentize the Christian eschaton". In "The Political Religions", Voegelin traces back the origin of political religion to the Egyptian worship of the Sun, the cult of Akhenaton. He traverses the history of the Middle Ages, and he shows how the archetype of the Christian apocalypse (a heresy to the orthodox Christian) came to occupy a central role in political religion. He includes a good discussion of the leviathanic state of Thomas Hobbes. Finally he ends with a compelling picture of the National Socialist state embodied in the Fuehrer. Although he was criticized in this essay for not outrightly condemning the National Socialists, Voegelin stated that this in fact just reveals the satanic allure that this political religion holds. To Voegelin, National Socialism is "satanic". In "The New Science of Politics", Voegelin examines various modes of representation from Plato and Aristotle through the Roman Empire. He then discusses the idea of gnosticism; he views the modern political religions as a restoration of the Gnostic heresy (condemned by early Christianity), an attempt to replace faith with certainty and bring about the Kingdom of God on Earth. This idea arose in the apocalyptic tradition, transmitted through the Middle Ages by the followers of Joachim de Fiore. He discusses in particular the case of the English Puritans. According to Voegelin, the modern political philosophies of liberalism, communism, and the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes are under the spell of gnosticism. In "Science, Politics, and Gnosticism", the most interesting of the essays presented, Voegelin delves into the thinkers Hegel, Marx ("an intellectual swindler"), Nietzsche ("the murder of God"), Heidegger, and psychoanalysis and National Socialism. To Voegelin, these thinkers are all "gnostics", and the movements spurred by their philosophies are "ersatz religions".

Voegelin represents an interesting alternative to modernity and liberalism. And this book among his collected works serves as an excellent introduction to the thought of this profound thinker, philosopher of gnosticism.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterful Synthesis September 21, 2002

By Jas. Murphy

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Eric Voegelin, who died in 1985, is one of the giants of intellectual history and political philosophy. Unfortunately, he is far less well-recognized outside of a small scholarly community than some of the poseurs who foist quack theories on the public under the guise of "political philosophy." The New Science of Politics, based on Voegelin's Walgreen Lectures, can be read as a theoretical companion to his magisterial Order and History, a five-volume elaboration of the theories presented here. Voegelin provides an examination of political community and its representations through symbolic appropriation and the underlying basis of political order throughout history. Equally, Voegelin deals with misappropriation of symbols in the form of Gnosticism, which emerged at the dawn of the middle ages. His diagnostic exercise leads to an examination of modernity, which is characterized by advance and decline, the nature of of our own times. Modernist movements such as Nazism and Communism embody gnostic misappropriation of the symbolization of order. Writing in the immediate postwar period as an Austrian refugee from Hitler, with a command of ancient and modern philosophy and history and access to documentation in a dozen languages, Voegelin both lays the foundation for a return to the Aristotelean tradition of political philosophy and analysis and provides the personal witness of a research physician who has examined the patient at close hand. There is no better short book in our times for accomplishing Dr. Johnson's admonition to clear your mind of cant, or providing a sound basis for recognizing the corruption of intellectual and personal standards in current politics and scholarship, or the infection of scholarship by extremist politics. Voegelin has a number of brilliant students carrying on his work. However, unlike acolytes of Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom and their neo-conservative entourage, who represent a very different and self-referential strain in modern political analysis, Voegelin's students have not populated the high offices of government. Given the power of Voegelin's model presented in The New Science of Politics, I expect and hope that his long-term influence will weigh decisively in the war on modernity and its pernicious supporting social science-based infrastructure. To understand the contours of the problem, The New Science of Politics is an indispensible guide and a model of elegant anlysis and writing.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Deep and Profound March 18, 2007

By TEK

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

For those of you who are new to Voegelin perhaps a word generally about his work will be helpful. Voegelin was born in Cologne, Germany in 1901. In 1938, he and his wife fled from Germany to the United States. From this context alone it is not surprising that Voegelin is very critical of the Nazis in particular and totalitarian regimes in general. What is perhaps more surprising to those who first come across Voegelin is his claim that regimes such as the Nazis are derivatives of such generally loved intellectual movements as the Enlightenment and Progressivism.

Taken together, the three works published in this volume provide a good basis for understanding how Voegelin comes to this conclusion. In this regard, "The New Science of Politics" is probably the most comprehensive work of the three. However, I would make two suggestions to those who are considering tackling this volume. First, read the first and third (that is, "The Political Religions" and "Science, Politics, and Gnosticism") before reading "The New Science of Politics". I think that the first and third pieces are much easier to read, even though they are less encompassing overall. Second, read "The New Science of Politics" twice. I read that installment for the first time about a year ago and I feel that I understood a lot more the second time around.

Voegelin is a great thinker, and his works in this volume provide a different, and yet very profound way of looking at modern Western society. I think Voegelin's construction of Gnosticism is right on as a critique of the modern psyche. I would recommend this book to anyone looking to explore the work of Voegelin; this is a great place to start. The writing is fairly difficult, but you don't have to understand everything to take a lot from this book.