Acceso usuarios
John Meadowcroft
A review of Engaging Enemies: Hayek and the Left by Simon Griffiths is presented. One of the great tragedies of contemporary academia is the lack of engagement between scholars who hold different normative positions or draw different empirical conclusions. Engagement, as Griffiths sets out in this important new book, does not mean simply critiquing alternative viewpoints, usually by seeking out the weakest point and then using that to break apart the theory or analysis, but rather requires a serious commitment to understanding the alternative point of view, so that one learns from it and seeks to improve ones own understanding of the world as a consequence. Few thinkers have been subject to more straw man attacks than Hayek, but this book is a study of four intellectual opponents of Hayek who sought serious engagement with his work and whose ideas were changed as a consequence. The four thinkers are British academics, David Miller, Raymond Plant, Hilary Wainwright and Andrew Gamble, Nevertheless, overall this is an important work that shows the challenge but also the great value of genuine intellectual engagement across ideological boundaries.
