John Gray i teza o kruchości cywilizacji

Abstract

The article provides an introduction to the featured interview with John Gray. A short account of the scholarly contacts of the interviewer with the interviewee is given. The conversation, entitled “Civilization will always be fragile” focuses on the three recent books by John Gray: Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia 2007, Gray’s Anatomy: Selected Writings 2009 and The Immortalization Commission: Science and the Strange Quest to Cheat Death 2011. Special attention is given to the first broadly discussed monograph. The main thesis of the book, concerning the death of secular utopia is painstakingly reconstructed. According to Gray: “The faith in Utopia, which killed so many in the centuries following the French revolution, is dead. […] The cycle in which world politics was dominated by secular versions of apocalyptic myth has come to an end […]”. While the article provides a thorough critique of Gray’s main argument, accusing it of dogmatism, it highly values the philosopher’s breathtakingly broad vision and his reflection on realism in politics.