Gerhart Niemeyer

Law Without Force is a landmark in political and social philosophy. It proposes nothing less than a completely new basis for international law. As relevant today as when it was first published nearly sixty years ago, it commands the attention of all concerned with what the future may bring to the law of nations. The great scope of Niemeyer's undertaking draws respect even from those who disagree with his challenging analysis of the historical past and his suggestions for the future of international law. In his new introduction, Michael Henry observes that Law Without Force provides us with a foundation of Niemeyer's thinking. Published in 1941, when Hitler was swallowing up Europe, this volume shows how a first-rate mind grappled with a legal, historical, social, and ultimately metaphysical problem. It provides in detail the reasoning behind Niemeyer's rejection of a foreign policy based on morality and his distinction between authoritarian and totalitarian governments; and it provides us with the first stage of his lengthy and prodigious effort to understand "this terrible century." It is a book that no serious student of Niemeyer can afford to ignore. At the very heart of the author's vigorous discussion may be found his rejection of a moral basis for international law and his suggestion that a functional basis should be substituted for it. The book incisively reviews the relation between traditional international law and the changing structure of international politics concluding that the traditional system of law has operated as an agency of disharmony and conflict. After an investigation of the traditional legal system, the author then asks, "What type of law fits the social structure of this modern world?" The answers are presented in the last part of the book, as Neimeyer offers his case for a functional system of law, divorced from moral exhortations or appeals to shattered authority. Philosophy, sociology, and legal theory are brilliantly interwoven in this volume, which will engage serious readers interested in political and social theory.

Law Without Force is a landmark in political and social philosophy. It proposes nothing less than a completely new basis for international law. As relevant today as when it was first published nearly sixty years ago, it commands the attention of all concerned with what the future may bring to the law of nations. The great scope of Niemeyer's undertaking draws respect even from those who disagree with his challenging analysis of the historical past and his suggestions for the future of international law. In his new introduction, Michael Henry observes that Law Without Force provides us with a foundation of Niemeyer's thinking. Published in 1941, when Hitler was swallowing up Europe, this volume shows how a first-rate mind grappled with a legal, historical, social, and ultimately metaphysical problem. It provides in detail the reasoning behind Niemeyer's rejection of a foreign policy based on morality and his distinction between authoritarian and totalitarian governments; and it provides us with the first stage of his lengthy and prodigious effort to understand "this terrible century." It is a book that no serious student of Niemeyer can afford to ignore. At the very heart of the author's vigorous discussion may be found his rejection of a moral basis for international law and his suggestion that a functional basis should be substituted for it. The book incisively reviews the relation between traditional international law and the changing structure of international politics concluding that the traditional system of law has operated as an agency of disharmony and conflict. After an investigation of the traditional legal system, the author then asks, "What type of law fits the social structure of this modern world?" The answers are presented in the last part of the book, as Neimeyer offers his case for a functional system of law, divorced from moral exhortations or appeals to shattered authority. Philosophy, sociology, and legal theory are brilliantly interwoven in this volume, which will engage serious readers interested in political and social theory.

This highly relevant essay by the prominent political philosopher has as its central theme the feature common to all totalitarian ideologies, "the total critique of society" that social criticism that rejects not this or that injustice but damns the entire "system" and overshadows an entire historical period." Niemeyer has offered within a much needed ontological framework a valuable essay to the growing literature on social criticism. Engaging in style, well printed, and constructive in tone, the book offers guidance in the present bewildering maze of political philosophies." - Choice" T]his is a meaty and important book." - Ellis Sandoz, National Review"The book provides stimulating reading on subjects of enduring political importance." - Alexander J. Groth, American Political Science Review

This is the first English paperback version of this text originally published in German in 1966, and first made available in English in 1978. The translated version includes Voegelin's ""Reason: the Classic Experience"", as well as a new first chapter written by Voegelin especially for this translation. ""Anamnesis"" pulls together those materials that focus most sharply upon the development of Eric Voegelin's philosophy of consciousness. One of the most influential and profound philosophers of our time, Voegelin has had an enormous impact on contemporary intellectual life where he was formerly Salvatori Distinguished Scholar of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

This carefully chosen collection of 23 articles represents the work of a political theorist of international renown. The unifying principle, described by Michael Henry in the book's introduction, is: 'Niemeyer's love for truth and his concern for the recovery of wholeness in human existence that has been lost or fragmented, particularly but not exclusively by totalitarian ideologies.'