Liberalism in Dark Times

Cherniss argues that what held liberalism together in the century of totalitarianism was not a doctrine but a disposition — a “tempered” ethos he traces through Albert Camus, Raymond Aron, Isaiah Berlin, Reinhold Niebuhr and Max Weber. Its marks are scepticism about one’s own righteousness, restraint in the use of power, and a refusal of the ruthlessness that both fascists and communists presented as mere realism. The book’s implicit claim is that this temperament, rather than any institutional design, is what liberal politics actually depends on, and that it is the part most easily lost.

Why it’s on the list: It sits in the curriculum’s liberalism, democracy and pluralism section, alongside Mill, Lippmann, Talisse and Inazu — the strand of the list concerned with how people who disagree keep sharing a polity.

Where I saw it: Brendan McCord’s Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List, in the section on Liberalism, Democracy, and Pluralism. The entry carries a ☑️ on the source page; the page gives no legend for that mark, so it is recorded here literally and not interpreted. The full 211-entry transcription is on The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.

Connections

• Liberalism — the tradition the book is about.
• Ideology — the ruthless certainty the tempered ethos is set against.
• The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the curriculum this came from.