Brian Fay – författare

This book examines the question of how our knowledge of social life affects, and ought to affect, our way of living it. In so doing, it critically discusses two epistemological models of social science – the positivist and the interpretive – from the viewpoint of the political theories which, it is argued, are implicit in these models; moreover, it proposes a third model – the critical – which is organised around an explicit account of the relation between social theory and practical life. The book has the special merit of being a good overview of the principal current ideas about the relation between social theory and political practice, as well as an attempt at providing a new and more satisfactory account of this relationship. To accomplish this task, it synthesises work from the analytic philosophy of social science with that of the neo-Marxism of the Frankfurt school.

This book examines the question of how our knowledge of social life affects, and ought to affect, our way of living it. In so doing, it critically discusses two epistemological models of social science – the positivist and the interpretive – from the viewpoint of the political theories which, it is argued, are implicit in these models; moreover, it proposes a third model – the critical – which is organised around an explicit account of the relation between social theory and practical life. The book has the special merit of being a good overview of the principal current ideas about the relation between social theory and political practice, as well as an attempt at providing a new and more satisfactory account of this relationship. To accomplish this task, it synthesises work from the analytic philosophy of social science with that of the neo-Marxism of the Frankfurt school.

This book presents a comprehensive vision of human life, ecology, and theology inspired by Spinoza. According to this vision, human beings and all other natural entities are not independent substances but are rather “modes” of nature, meaning that they are fleeting manifestations of nature’s conatus. By intuitively (and not just intellectually) recognizing ourselves to be modes of nature, we can more fully realize ourselves. To achieve this requires a radical rethinking of our world, of ourselves, and of God, and a far richer understanding of ecology, and an ethics grounded in ecology, than those in current usage. Brian Fay explores this rethinking, and the result is a new, far-reaching vision of our world and how to be responsible, thriving agents in it.