The ideas of Richard Sennett in his most influential book The Fall of Public Man from 1974 are many, but the main point is that the resolution of the lines between the public life and the private life has affected society, the democracy and individuals in a negative way. The main point of this essay is to understand the nature of Sennet’s thinking, ideas and philosophy and how they are connected. I am focusing on the true nature of the way he is formulating the issues and conflicts he is dealing with. Even though Sennett is a very influential thinker, very few people actually have analyzed his works, especially The Fall of Public Man. “Res publica” is the Roman expression of the bigger responsibility each citizen has in a society that goes beyond themselves. This is when you are a part of something bigger than yourself, your friends and your family, you are a part of a close connected community and society. You are not strangers to each other, you are all one. This is exactly the type of society that sociology professor of London School of Economics Richard Sennett means has gone away. Richard Sennett is often described as a person standing on the left on the political scale when it comes to economics and at the same time culturally conservative. The result of this essay shows that Richard Sennett blames industrial capitalism, secularism and urban planning for the new modern society when the distinction between public life and private life has gone away. This is the new kind of society in the western world where people shifted focus from an extrovert personality to an introvert one, a world where we are trapped in our own minds instead of stepping out of it and actually living in it. Many times, the sociology professor goes back to the mid 18th century to understand the thriving public life in Paris and London. My theoretical perspective is based upon Collingwoods thoughts about question and answer which you need to understand the question in order to understand the thinker's answer. You could call Sennett either a nostalgic or a very sharp critic of the modern world, it all depends on how much you resonate and believe in his ideas.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-230063 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Wolgers, Sass |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för kultur och estetik |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Stockholm studies in the history of ideas, 1100-9667, Stockholm studies in the history of ideas, 1100-9667 |
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