Description
CAMBRIDGE Ernest Gellner and Contemporary Social Thought 2007 Edition by Sinisa Malesevic, Mark Haugaard
Ernest Gellner was a unique scholar whose work covered areas as diverse as social anthropology, analytical philosophy, the sociology of the Islamic world, nationalism, psychoanalysis, East European transformations and kinship structures. Despite this diversity, there is an exceptional degree of unity and coherence in Gellner's work with his distinctly modernist, rationalist and liberal world-view evident in everything he wrote. His central problematic remains constant: understanding how the modern world came into being and to what extent it is unique relative to all other social forms. Ten years after his death, this book brings together leading social theorists to evaluate the significance of Gellner's legacy and to re-examine his central concerns. It corrects many misunderstandings and critically engages with Gellner's legacy to provide a cutting edge contribution to understanding our contemporary post-9/11, global, late modern, social condition. Table of contents :- Introduction: an intellectual rebel with a cause Mark Haugaard and Sinisa Malesevic; Part I. Civil Society, Coercion and Liberty: 1. Ernest Gellner on liberty and modernity Alan Macfarlane; 2. Predation and production in European imperialism Michael Mann; 3. Power, modernity and liberal democracy Mark Haugaard; 4. Gellner versus Marxism: a major concern or a fleeting affair? Peter Skalnik; Part II. Ideology, Nationalism and Modernity: 5. Nationalism: restructuring Gellner's theory Nicos Mouzelis; 6. Between the book and the new sword: Gellner, violence and ideology Sinisa Malesevic; 7. Ernest Gellner and the multicultural mess Thomas Hylland Eriksen; Part III. Islam, Postmodernism and Gellner's Metaphysic: 8. Islam, Modernity and Science Michael Lessnoff; 9. Truth, reason and the spectre of contingency Kevin Ryan; 10. Gellner's metaphysic John A. Hall.