Short description
Reminiscent of Gulliver's Travels and Sophie's World in turn, this delightful satirical comedy is a whirlwind tour through the utopias of our modernity. Along the way, Lukes both pays homage to and reveals the tragic failure of each utopia in achieving the perfect world. Nicholas Caritat, a modern-day professor and scholar of the Enlightenment, takes a journey through the fictional world of western political philosophy. Conversing mentally with Voltaire and Condorcet, he seeks to avoid the political struggle in Militaria, the police state where he lives, and though he is arrested by the police, he is liberated by guerrillas who dub him Pangloss because they want him to find the best of all possible worlds. Traveling through Utilitaria, Libertaria, Communitaria, and Egalitaria, his misadventures reveal to him and us that none of them is ideal because, alone, each lacks the strengths of the others.
Long description
This title presents brilliant fictional journey through Western political philosophy with one of our most original thinkers. The Curious Enlightenment of Professor Caritat is a brilliant fictional journey through Western political philosophy with one of our most original thinkers. Professor Caritat, a middle-aged Candide, walks naively through the neighboring countries of Utilitaria, Communitaria and Libertaria, in his quest to find the best of all possible worlds. Cut loose from the confines of his ivory tower, this wandering professor is made to confront the perplexed state of modern thinking in this dazzling comedy of ideas. A Sophie's World for political philosophy with grim Swiftian humour, this is an ideal book to introduce the student and the lay reader to the vast terrain of political thought.
Review
Lukes manages to equal the pace and flair of Candide. New York Times Book Review Utterly magnetic. Los Angeles Times Book Review A delightfully edifying comedy. Guardian
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