This book leaves a lasting impression. Geuss is a great writer and a very thoughtful human being who has resisted quite valiantly the conventions of his discipline and his times. This is no ‘grim' outlook at all, but rather hopeful, and one can only hope that Geuss himself agrees.---Laurie M. Johnson, European Legacy
Geuss is a unique voice in contemporary philosophy, and this book is ideal for anyone interested in intellectual history.---David Gordon, Library Journal
"These essays are, as always with Geuss, engagingly written, challenging, and extremely interesting."—Daniel Brudney, author of Marx's Attempt to Leave Philosophy
In these 13 essays, well-known critical philosopher Geuss ranges over a very wide field of topics--politics, ethics, cultural formations, history, ancient literary and philosophical works, and criticism itself. . . . [S]tudents can read some of these essays with profit, such as the discussion of when obscurity of speech might be best.
"Raymond Geuss exhibits in this unique collection an intellectual courage, rare today, in radically undermining current beliefs and preoccupations so that a new, surprising view is disclosed. By doing this with respect to some of the most demanding political questions of our times, Geuss contributes more to the unfinished project of critical theory than most of its self-acclaimed followers."—Axel Honneth, Columbia University
In A World Without Why, Raymond Geuss brings his caustic intelligence to many of themes and figures that have occupied his career.---Alex Sager, Marx & Philosophy
"The impressively bleak view of the world presented so elegantly in these essays puts in question some widely shared agreements—about politics, ethics, clarity and truthfulness, the tragic. The artfulness of these essays is that the style of Geuss's questioning is as subversive as the subject matter."—Alasdair MacIntyre, author of After Virtue
"A World without Why is a fascinating collection of essays by one of the most original, witty, profound, passionate, and erudite philosophers alive today."—Wendy Brown, author of Walled States, Waning Sovereignty