Al Qaeda and what it Means to be Modern

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Faber, 2004 - 145 síður
Fundamentalist terror movements are seen as reversions to medievalism, backlashes against a way of life that is the same everywhere. This view is a mirage. Thinking of modernity as a universal condition is a hindrance to understanding the present. Gray goes back to the origins of our notion of modernity in early nineteenth-century Positivism. Many economists imbibed their view that every society goes through the same developmental phases. Gray argues that September 11th destroyed the idea of globalisation as the sole pathway to modernity. He considers the role of the global free market, the pretensions of economics, the metamorphosis of war and the prospects of an American empire.

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Um höfundinn (2004)

John Gray was born on April 17, 1948 in South Shields, England. He received a B.A., M.Phil., and D.Phil. from Exeter College, Oxford. He taught at several universities including the University of Essex, Jesus College, Oxford, and the University of Oxford. He retired as Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2008. He contributes regularly to The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement and the New Statesman, where he is the lead book reviewer. He is the author of several books including False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism, Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals, Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and The Death of Utopia, and The Immortalisation Commission: Science and the Strange Quest to Cheat Death.

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