>Date: Thu, 20 Jul 1995 13:14:02 -0400 (EDT) >From: "Chris M. Sciabarra" >Subject: Book Abstracts In keeping with the situation, here are brief abstracts of my two forthcoming books: MARX, HAYEK, AND UTOPIA - Chris Matthew Sciabarra SUNY Press (August 1995): ISBN 0-7914-2616-5 (PAPER), $19.95 ISBN 0-7914-2615-7 (CLOTH), $59.50 This book develops a critique of utopianism through a provocative comparison of the works of Karl Marx and F. A. Hayek, thus engaging two vastly different traditions in critical dialogue. By emphasizing the methodological and substantive similarities between Marxian and Hayekian perspectives, it challenges each tradition's most precious assumptions about the other. Through this comparative analysis, the book articulates the crucial distinctions between utopian and radical theorizing. Sciabarra examines the dialectical method of social inquiry common to both Marxian and Hayekian thought and argues that both Marx and Hayek rejected utopian theorizing because it internalizes an abstract, ahistorical, exaggerated sense of human possibility. The chief disagreement between Marx and Hayek, he shows, is not political but epistemological, reflecting their differing assumptions about the limits of reason. AYN RAND: THE RUSSIAN RADICAL - Chris Matthew Sciabarra Penn State Press (August 1995): ISBN 0-271-01440-7 (PAPER), $18.95 ISBN 0-271-01441-5 (CLOTH), $55.00 The first book to trace Ayn Rand's Russian origins and assess her place in intellectual history. Author of THE FOUNTAINHEAD and ATLAS SHRUGGED, Ayn Rand (1905-1982) is one of the most widely read philosophers of the twentieth century. Yet, despite the sale of nearly thirty million copies of her works, there have been few extended scholarly examinations of her thought. AYN RAND: THE RUSSIAN RADICAL provides the first comprehensive analysis of the intellectual roots and philosophy of this controversial thinker. Chris Sciabarra views Rand's "Objectivism" as a rejection--and affirmation--of key elements in the Russian tradition. Born in Russia during the Silver Age, Rand was educated at Leningrad University and studied with N. O. Lossky. She absorbed a dialectical method of inquiry that profoundly influenced her literary and philosophic project. Her distinctive libertarian synthesis is presented as a major contribution to radical social theory. Ultimately, Sciabarra challenges Rand's followers and critics to reassess her thought and its place in intellectual history. In writing this book, the author conducted original historical research, using materials from the Leningrad archives, interviews with Lossky's descendants and other Russian contemporaries of Rand, and an astounding diversity of sources within the vast written and oral tradition of Objectivism. ============================================================== You may contact me at sciabrrc@is2.nyu.edu if you have any other questions with regard to these works. Thanks! ================================================== Dr. Chris M. Sciabarra Visiting Scholar, NYU Department of Politics INTERNET: sciabrrc@is2.nyu.edu (NOTE NEW ADDRESS) ==================================================