Description: "Taking as his starting point Robert Frost's accusation that a liberal is someone who can't take his own side in an argument, Steven Lukes confronts liberal thought with its own limitations. The essays in this collection focus on the perennial but newly urgent questions of how the tension between relativism and the moral universalism current in contemporary politics can be resolved within the framework of liberalism." "While recognizing the dangers of moral imperialism, Lukes argues that a relativist position based on identifying clearly distinct cultural and moral communities is incoherent. Drawing on work in anthropology and philosophy, he examines the nature of social justice, the politics of identity and human rights theory, as well as discussing how ideas drawn from the work of Isaiah Berlin can shed light on these debates."--Jacket.
Review Quotes: Praise for Steven Lukes′s The Curious Enlightenment of Professor Caritat
"Written in a beautifully clear style, full of a keen, serious wit ... Lukes achieves both lightness and weight in a way many novelists might envy."--Independent
"This book is a box of delights, often wonderfully funny and always deliciously clever, a contemporary political satire to set among the best."
--New Statesman
"Knock-out satirical humour."
--Times Literary Supplement
"Lukes manages to equal the pace and flair of Candide."
-New York Times Book Review
"Utterly magnetic."
--Los Angeles Times Book Review