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The Annotated Works of Henry George
A Perplexed Philosopher
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Publisher:
2023
Summary
Henry George (1839–1897) rose to fame as a social reformer and economist amid the industrial and intellectual turbulence of the late nineteenth century. His best-selling Progress and Poverty (1879) captures the ravages of privileged monopolies and the woes of industrialization in a language of eloquent indignation. His reform agenda resonates as powerfully today as it did in the Gilded Age, and his impassioned prose and compelling thought inspired such diverse figures as Leo Tolstoy, John Dewey, Sun Yat-Sen, Winston Churchill, and Albert Einstein. This six-volume collection of The Annotated Works of Henry George assembles all his major works for the first time with new introductions, critical annotations, extensive bibliographical material, and comprehensive indexing to provide a wealth of resources for scholars and reformers.
Volume VI of this series presents A Perplexed Philosopher (1892), Henry George’s devastating critique of Herbert Spencer’s changing views on the “land question” after Spencer achieved fame as the author of the “Synthetic Philosophy.” Social Statics (1850), Spencer’s first major work, affirms an equal right of all to the use of the earth. By the early 1890s, Spencer had recanted this view in Justice (1891) and an abridged version of Social Statics (1892). This betrayal of principle by Spencer provoked George to write A Perplexed Philosopher. In this volume, George’s original text is supplemented by critical annotations and an extensive topical bibliography. A cumulative index covers all six volumes in the series.The introductory essay, “Social Evolution and Moral Sophistry,” by Dr. Joseph Milne provides the cultural and philosophical context for George’s critical analysis of Spencer’s tortuous abandonment of the principle of equal freedom with respect to its application to the use of nature and the furtherance of equal opportunity for all. In A Perplexed Philosopher, George employs his considerable logical acumen to reveal Spencer’s multiple inconsistencies and confusions when it comes to the land question. Spencer did not respond in a systematic fashion to George’s critique.
Henry George wrote A Perplexed Philosopher to correct the many confusions about the land question by a major nineteenth-century philosopher. In doing so, he made a significant contribution to such topics as the issue of compensation, when a wrongful entitlement is taken away from a privilege-holder, and the tendency towards materialistic positivism. A Perplexed Philosopher reveals fundamental differences between George’s philosophical outlook and other prevailing views in the nineteenth century. A Perplexed Philosopher is not only a major contribution to nineteenth-century scholarship with regard to the relation between humanity and nature, but it also illuminates a stark contrast between George’s animating philosophy of equitable reform and Spencer’s philosophy of the status quo.
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Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2023
ISBN-Print
978-1-68393-375-5
ISBN-Online
978-1-68393-376-2
Publisher
Lexington, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
364
Product type
Edited Book
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Contents No access
Preface No access
Introduction: Social Evolution and Moral Sophistry No access Pages 1 - 44
A PERPLEXED PHILOSOPHER: Being an Examination of Mr. Herbert Spencer’s Various Utterances on the Land Question, with some Incidental Reference to his Synthetic Philosophy No access Pages 45 - 46
INTRODUCTION. THE REASON FOR THIS EXAMINATION. No access Pages 47 - 58
Chapter I. “Social Statics”—The Right to Land. No access
Chapter II. The Incongruous Passage. No access
Chapter III. “Social Statics”—The Right Of Property. No access
Chapter IV. Mr. Spencer’s Confusion as to Rights. No access
Chapter V. Mr. Spencer’s Confusion as to Value. No access
Chapter VI. From “Social Statics” to “Political Institutions.” No access
Chapter I.. Letter to the St. James’s Gazette. No access
Chapter II. “The Man Versus the State.” No access
Chapter III. Letter to the Times. No access
Chapter IV. This Apology Examined. No access
Chapter V. Second Letter to the Times. No access
Chapter VI. More Letters. No access
Chapter I. The Fate of “Social Statics.” No access
Chapter II. The Place of “Justice” in the Synthetic Philosophy. No access
Chapter III. The Synthetic Philosophy. No access
Chapter IV. The Idea of Justice in the Synthetic Philosophy. No access
Chapter V. Mr. Spencer’s Task. No access
Chapter VI. “The Rights to the Uses of Natural Media.” No access
Chapter VII. “Justice” on the Right to Light and Air. No access
Chapter VIII. “Justice” on the Right to Land. No access
Chapter IX. “Justice.”—The Right of Property. No access
Chapter X. The Right of Property and the Right of Taxation. No access
Chapter XI. Compensation. No access
Chapter XII. “Justice”—The Land Question. No access
Chapter XIII. Principal Brown. No access
CONCLUSION. THE MORAL OF THIS EXAMINATION. No access Pages 277 - 284
