AshehougAgency

Technology, Politics and Utopia

Full title: Technology, Politics and Utopia. A Selection of Articles on Philosophy and Politics, 1963-1991

This selection of previously unpublished articles presents subjects such as ecology, environmental protection from the early 70s and topical political articles and contributions to the debate on Marxism. The collection shows yet again that Skjervheim is capable of covering a wide variety of subjects.

Skjervheim is a philosopher taking great interest in political life, and he sets out to remind us of the importance of the ability to make practical political decisions, using the essay as the medium.

He criticises Peter Brökner, Thodor W. Adorno, Ernst Jönger and Martin Heidegger because they lack sufficient understanding of politics. According to Skjervheim they always put the Utopian hope or the negation of this hope in place of practical politics. To Skjervheim this is inadequate since it is just as important to understand how society functions as to have an idea of what constitutes a "good society".

Skjervheim’s aspiration is not to formulate an extensive political-philosophical theory, but rather to remind us that things can be overlooked in political theory and practise and that this, therefore, may lead to a kind of naà¯veté. Through his critique of different political Utopian ideas he shows how good ideas and plans may have fatal results. Yet again we are convinced to Skjervheim's broadly based criticism and struck by the sharpness of his analyses.

First published: 1996, Aschehoug Non-Fiction

Hans Skjervheim: Biography and bibliography