《现代性及其不满》读后感精选( 六 ) modernity|modern|debate|book|M

But the decadence of the democratic future and the hatred toward the bourgeois is only one version of the counter-enlightenment story. Authors like Tocqueville and Leo Strauss hold a critical view on modernity while did not radically reject the modernity at all. Tocqueville was skeptical of the middle-class democracies for its materialism, love of comfort, and belief in unlimited progress. But he saw the possibility of certain civic virtues based on the ethic of self-interest. The civic virtues, unlike the aristocratic virtues involving nobility and self-sacrifice, includes virtues such as cooperation, moderation, tolerance and self-mastery. Leo Strauss refused the modern association of Plato and totalitarianism and took great seriousness to revive the classical political thought. He did not simply regard the ancient as an alternative to the modern at hand or a resource providing ready-made answers but insist the possibility of the premodern thought to providing support for modern democracy. His thought on the liberal education suggested the image of the ancient “mixed regime.” The liberal education aimed at nurturing and the preservation of the “gentlemen” who could serve as a mainstay against the pressure of mass culture.
2.The Method
The main body of the book consists of the selection of important figures in the development of the thesis and the antithesis of modernity, A detailed text analysis of their works, not limited to the argument made by the author, but also focus on authors’ intention with the attention to the writing style and the arrangement of the argument, trying to understand the work as a whole. In the analysis of Descartes’ Discourse on Method, unlike common reading of the book concentrating on its philosophical contribution of responding to the revived skepticism and regarding it the philosophical foundation of modern knowledge, the main idea is about the moral import of the work. According to Smith, Descartes deliberately chose the form of an autobiography in order to show an exemplary life of self-discovery. The reason of the publication of the Discourse comes from a desire to benefit the public as Descartes believed his work would procure the public good by providing his new ethics of humanity and generosity. Instead of going straight to look at the Cartesian proposal of the new way of understanding, the analysis faithfully followed the writing order which started with the story of the education of a young philosopher. Then the Descartes’s proposals for the reform of the understanding, his concerns about the practical consequences of the new method, and the brief tour to his metaphysics and physics. The analysis showed, although Descartes say nothing directly about the ethical implication of his making human the “masters and possessors of nature”, his aspiration to autonomy and self-sufficiency is an analogue to the Machiavellian princely self-creation: Machiavelli suggest the possibility for a prince to outwit fortuna and Descartes implies the mastering of one’s own fate.