The Cunning of Freedom

“Forget Rawls, Nozick, and Dworkin. You have to read Legutko. His new book, The Cunning of Freedom, demolishes social-contract theory and shows why universal rights haven’t made us free or happy—and never will. Legutko’s penetrating vision of positive human freedom puts him at the very forefront of political philosophy in our time.” —Yoram Hazony, author of The Virtue of Nationalism (Basic Books, 2018) “Ryszard Legutko dissects today’s obligatory platitudes of diversity, tolerance, and inclusion. He frees us from cant about freedom and inspires us to live as free men. A must-read.” —R. R. Reno, editor of First Things “The enticing word ‘liberalism’ with its ‘rights’ is now a bait leading to the slavery of conformism. Freedom itself has to be freed from its own perversions. Ryszard Legutko aptly scrutinizes several models of the free man, alleged or real: philosopher, entrepreneur, artist, aristocrat. Beyond Hume's and Nietzsche's nihilism, he retrieves a strong concept of the self, grounded on the Greek ideal of the ‘large soul,’ mindful of its roots, conscious of its dignity and of the duties it involves, fighting for the virtues, and finding peace in contemplation.” —Rémi Brague, professor emeritus, Sorbonne and University of Munich, and author of Curing Mad Truths (University of Notre Dame Press, 2019) “Of all the many books on freedom I have read, this new book by Ryszard Legutko is by far the best. What he says is in essence what Burke also said, and what most—particularly American—conservatives today have all but forgotten: that freedom without wisdom and virtue is folly, vice and madness, without restraint. In Burke this is just a brilliant aphorism. Legutko’s book gives us much more: it is a profound, philosophical description and explanation of the many shapes this mad and vicious freedom has taken in the modern world. A hard, but necessary pill to swallow for everyone who thinks that freedom is all it takes. A truly Socratic elenchos on an intellectual level that is very rare in today’s academic world.” —Andreas Kinneging, professor of legal philosophy, University of Leiden