tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1187572289151836731.post123971057445086498..comments2023-05-12T11:24:30.091-04:00Comments on The Imaginary Philosophy: Old, Obscure, Great Books: Review No. 2Tom Stelenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13460571529579448952noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1187572289151836731.post-68924555274523153692009-03-26T11:05:00.000-04:002009-03-26T11:05:00.000-04:00Ardsgaine, I'll keep that 'Soviet Empire' book in ...Ardsgaine, I'll keep that 'Soviet Empire' book in mind because I still have a lot of books on Russian history, philosophy, religion, and intellectual history I have to get time to dive in to.<BR/><BR/>Good question, Madmax. I'm not sure how much they were influenced by the Enlightenement, I'd like to know. The French Enlightenment brought about socialism and as my understandiing of it stands now I'd say the French political and social thinkers seemed to have done what the Russians did - secularize the ideas in religion. I read 'Road to Revolution' a few years ago, so I had to review it for this post. While doing that I was suddenly aware of a glaring omission from the Russians philosophies: no basis in Greek thought. Greek thought obviously made the Enlightenment possible. Greek thought makes progress possible - which is what the Russians wanted! So yeah, it's as complicated as it is fascinating to see where different philosophies go and what comes of them.Tom Stelenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13460571529579448952noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1187572289151836731.post-58810107637896908612009-03-26T01:44:00.000-04:002009-03-26T01:44:00.000-04:00Tom,Thanks for bringing my attention to this book....Tom,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for bringing my attention to this book. It sounds fascinating. From your description, it sounds like many of these revolutionaries were influenced by the Enlightenment as well as by Christianity. I'm not an expert on the Enlightenment but is there a sense in which the Enlightenment contributed to the socialist revolutions? After all, men like Rousseau and Hobbes were Enlightenment era figures even if they were not pro-individualist influences. It seems like the better elements of Enlightenment thought led to the Anglo-American experience while the worse elements led to Continental socialism.madmaxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14375140131881725965noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1187572289151836731.post-92187620070513507602009-03-26T00:37:00.000-04:002009-03-26T00:37:00.000-04:00That sounds like a fascinating read. I agree with ...That sounds like a fascinating read. <BR/><BR/>I agree with you that there are a lot of old OOP books that make for informative reading. If you would like to follow up your reading on Russia, I recommend <I>The Rise of the Soviet Empire: A Study of Soviet Foreign Policy</I>, by Jan Librach.Ardsgainehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01850059187508036055noreply@blogger.com