Results by title

3 books match the query 'Ryn, Claes G.'

cover of A Common Human Ground: Universality and Particularity in a Multicultural World

A Common Human Ground

Universality and Particularity in a Multicultural World

Claes G. Ryn

University of Missouri Press, 2019

A great challenge of the twenty-first century is the danger of conflict between persons, peoples, and cultures, among and within societies. In A Common Human Ground, Claes Ryn explores the nature of this problem and sets forth a theory about what is necessary for peaceful relations to be possible.
Many in the Western world trust in “democracy,” “capitalism,” “liberal tolerance,” “scientific progress,” or “general enlightenment” to handle this problem. Although each of these, properly defined, may contribute toward alleviating disputes, Ryn argues that the problem is much more complex and demanding than is usually recognized. He reasons that, most fundamentally, good relations among individuals and nations have moral and cultural preconditions.
What can predispose them to mutual respect and peace? One Western philosophical tradition, for which Plato set the pattern, maintains that the only way to genuine unity is for historical diversity to yield to universality. The implication of this view for a multicultural world would be a peace that requires that cultural distinctiveness be effaced as far as possible and replaced with a universal culture. A very different Western philosophical tradition denies the existence of universality altogether. It is represented today by postmodernist multiculturalism—a view that leaves unanswered the question as to how conflict between diverse groups might be averted.
Ryn questions both of these traditions, arguing for the potential union of universality and particularity. He contends that the two need not be enemies, but in fact need each other. Cultivating individual and national particularities is potentially compatible with strengthening and enriching our common humanity. This volume embraces the notion of universality, while at the same time historicizing it.
Using wide-ranging examples, Ryn presents a firmly sustained and systematic argument centering on this central issue. His approach is interdisciplinary, discussing not only political ideas, but also fiction, drama, and other arts. Scholarly and philosophical, but not specialized, this book will appeal to general readers as well as intellectuals.
[more]
cover of Democracy and the Ethical Life: A Philosophy of Politics and Community (Second Edition, Expanded)

Democracy and the Ethical Life

A Philosophy of Politics and Community (Second Edition, Expanded)

Claes G. Ryn

Catholic University of America Press, 1990

This study goes to the heart of ethics and politics. Strongly argued and lucidly written, the book makes a crucial distinction between two forms of democracy
[more]
cover of The Philosophy of Paul Elmer More: The Ethical Basis of Life and Letters

The Philosophy of Paul Elmer More

The Ethical Basis of Life and Letters

Folke Leander

University of Missouri Press, 2026

Folke Leander (1910-1981) was a prolific and internationally known Swedish philosopher. He is best known in the United States as an explicator of the New Humanism, an informal movement of literary and cultural criticism founded by Paul Elmer More (1864-1937) and Irving Babbitt (1865-1933). 

Leander’s manuscript for The Philosophy of Paul Elmer More was completed in the early 1970s, but because of the academic environment at the time and the book’s special philosophical focus, Leander was unable to find a publisher. Since then, the work existed only as a typescript, a copy of which he left with Claes G. Ryn, his former student and collaborator, in the hope that one day in more favorable intellectual circumstances it might be published. 

Leander is rare among the scholars of the New Humanism for his first-rate philosophical training, depth of insight, and clarity of expression. In The Philosophy of Paul Elmer More he grapples carefully and precisely with the most fundamental tenets of the New Humanism. Although very supportive of the movement, Leander provides essential critiques of its contentions—and even improves upon some of them in crucial respects. In a series of concise, limpid chapters, he explains and assesses such fundamental—but often hazily understood—Humanist concepts as the “inner check,” “naturalism,” and “the higher will.” The result is a book essential for anyone who wants to understand the New Humanism.


 

[more]