Sovereignty and Reason / Souveränität der Vernunft
The Cultural Beginnings of Liberalism
The early liberals were enthusiasts. They saw themselves as flag-bearers of freedom, progress, and a rational system of government. They viewed the demand for unlimited popular government with scepticism. Instead, they fought for a system of political representation, in which educated individuals with great foresight were supposed to embody the will of the people. It was this ideal that led to the institutions of the modern constitutional state. But what were the cultural conditions that...
Read more
The early liberals were enthusiasts. They saw themselves as flag-bearers of freedom, progress, and a rational system of government. They viewed the demand for unlimited popular government with scepticism. Instead, they fought for a system of political representation, in which educated individuals with great foresight were supposed to embody the will of the people. It was this ideal that led to the institutions of the modern constitutional state. But what were the cultural conditions that contributed to this? And what is left of these today? In his fascinating cultural history of early liberalism, Albrecht Koschorke looks into the question of how collective action can lead to rationality and sustainability. A question that is still pressing today.
2026, 180 pages
Persons
Albrecht Koschorke
Author
Albrecht Koschorke, born in 1958, is a professor of Modern German Literature and General Literary Studies at the University of Constance. Since 2006, he has been part of the cluster of excellence on »Cultural Foundations of Social Integration« in Constance and became the speaker of the post-graduate programme on »The Real in the Culture of Modernity« in 2010. In 2002, he was awarded the Prize of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin-Brandenburg and in 2003 the Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation.
Albrecht Koschorke
Author
Albrecht Koschorke, born in 1958, is a professor of Modern German Literature and General Literary Studies at the University of Constance. Since...
© Jürgen Bauer
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Latest first
Year of Publication: 2015
Albrecht KoschorkeYear of Publication: 2015
Hegel and Us
Which factors condition a cultural grand narrative and let it become efficacious? Especially Hegel’s sublime accomplishment of a narrative synthesis that he achieves with his philosophy of history still provokes this question. And so it is the grand epicist Hegel, who dons the garb of philosophical classification, that Albrecht Koschorke focuses on in his Adorno Lectures in...