Ernest Barker Research Articles

Two Currents in Contemporary English Political Theory

There is widespread discontent today with the state of English political theory. This does not seem to have been so a generation ago. In 1915, Ernest Barker certainly revealed uneasiness about some intellectual tendencies of the time, but his overriding belief was that the new psychology and the new awareness of the personality of groups within society would enrich thinking in the long run. Ten years later, Lewis Rockow was distinctly optimistic at the end of his Contemporary English Political Thought. Having surveyed the first quarter of this century, he was impressed by “the richness of the contemporary mind” and the boldness of its political speculation. How different is the self-judgment of our own day. “In the present generation,” declared Professor Catlin in 1952, “England is in a poorer way as a fount of political ideas than she has been for centuries.” There were only a few men—Laski, Barker, Oakeshott, E. H. Carr—whom he would put in a high category, while apart from them he went on to say, “a drear darkness has fallen on British political theory which was so bright.” A little later, and speaking of the world in general rather than of England alone, Professor Cobban lamented “a general tendency to cease thinking about society in terms of political theory.” He could find no original thought since the eighteenth century and concluded that the idea of democracy had become a mere shibboleth—and not even a serviceable one, since all camps used it. He felt that the study of politics had taken a wrong turn, being corrupted by a neglect of the moral element, by an indifference to the practical problems besetting men, and by a deep pessimism about the possibility of resolving the dilemma between “moral man and immoral society.” Eric Voegelin seems at first to strike a more cheerful note when he speaks of “the revival, not to say the outburst, of political philosophy at Oxford in recent years,” but his article is critical of some of its tendencies and even goes so far at one point as to refer to its “distressing state.”

Principles of Social and Political Theory.

Journal Article Book Reviews Get access Principles of Social and Political Theory.. By Ernest Barker. (Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1951. Pp. x + 284. Price 25s). A. G. Wernham A. G. Wernham Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 5, Issue 19, April 1955, Pages 181–182, https://doi.org/10.2307/2217147 Published: 01 April 1955

Reviews

Reviewed in this article:Sir Ernest Barker, Sir George Clark and P. VaucherSir Ernest Barker, Sir George Clark and P. VaucherW. G. Hoskins. Devon.T. C. Barker and J. R. Harris. A Merseyside Town in the Industrial Revolution, St Helens, 1750–1900.Lionel Robbins. The Economist in the Twentieth Century and Other Lectures in Political Economy.

Age and Youth: Memories of Three Universities and Father of the Man, by Ernest Barker

Age and Youth: Memories of Three Universities and Father of the Man, <i>by Ernest Barker</i>

Principles of Social and Political Theory

Journal Article Principles of Social and Political Theory Get access Principles of Social and Political Theory. By Ernest Barker. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1951. viii+284 pp. Index. 9” × 5¾”. 25s. Alfred Cobban Alfred Cobban Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 28, Issue 4, October 1952, Page 477, https://doi.org/10.2307/2604188 Published: 01 October 1952

The Open Society and Its Enemies

years ago I read, very hurriedly, the first volume of this book and two or three ehapters of the seeond; and have therefore gained very little from thinking again about svhat I thought before. On the other hand, I have heard the book diseussed several times, and not always eoolly, and therefore eould not begin a eareful reading of it free from preeoneeptions. Having read it, I feel more eertain of the ability of the author than of the quality of his book. The first volume deals with Plato. It expounds and eritieizes the Platonie soeial and politieal philosophy, and it also attaeks Plato. This part of the book has been ealled unorthodox ; and it is, I think, just as well to explain exaetly what is unorthodox about it. Plato's politieal philosophy has been diseussed so long, so thoroughly and by so many able persons, that there is probably very little that is new to be said about it. The unorthodoxy , such as it is, of Professor Popper's treatment of Plato, eertainly does not lie in anything partieularly new he has to tell us about his philosophy; it lies (if anyuhere) rather in the motives he aseribes to Plato, in the comparisons he makes between his theories and some modern ones, and in his aeeount of Plato's relations uZith Soerates. Professor Popper believes that Plato's admirers have been misled by their admiration for him and have often quite misunderstood him. Now, it is eertainly tme that the world has been offered many different aceounts of Plato's politieal philosophy, nearly all of them by his admirers, and that every one of these aecounts has been more or less ineompatible with some of the others; it therefore follors that Plato has been often misunderstood and nearly always by his admirers. But it does not follow that all this admiration has left us with a seriously distorted conception of that philosophy; one admirer has corrected another, and the admiration has been often greatly qualified. Professor Popper is sometimes quite reekless in nrhat he says about Plato's admirers. For instanee, he suggests that Sir Ernest Barker has not notieed 2 that Plato deliberately eonfused egoism and individualism, and then attacked individualism as if it were the same thing as egoism. The impression left on the reader is that Sir Ernest Barker has been so blinded by his admiration

Essays on Government

Journal Article Essays on Government Get access Essays on Government. 2nd ed. By Ernest Barker. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1951. vii+304pp. Index. 9′​′×534′​′⁠. 25s. Max Beloff Max Beloff Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 28, Issue 1, January 1952, Page 137, https://doi.org/10.2307/2605104 Published: 01 January 1952

The Ideas and Ideals of the British Empire

Journal Article The Ideas and Ideals of the British Empire Get access The Ideas and Ideals of the British Empire. 2nd ed. By Ernest Barker. London, Cambridge University Press, 1951. viii+171 pp. Index. (Current Problems, No. 7.) 7′​′×412′​′⁠. 5s. S. R. Davis S. R. Davis Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 27, Issue 4, October 1951, Pages 504–505, https://doi.org/10.2307/2608636 Published: 01 October 1951

BOOK REVIEWS

BOOK REVIEWS Principles of Social and Political Theory . By Ernest Barker . Oxford : Clarendon Press . 25s. net LINDSAY OF BIRKER LINDSAY OF BIRKER Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Parliamentary Affairs, Volume V, Issue 1, 1951, Pages 240–242, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.pa.a053329 Published: 01 January 1951

The Fifty-Seventh Annual Meeting

AbstractAbstractAlthough there was mist in the valley, it was a bland day, with bursts of warm sunshine, for the Fifty-Seventh Annual Meeting held in the New Sunday School, Haworth, on Saturday, May 26th, 1951. There was a good rally of members at the business meeting, but the attendance at the public meeting was smaller than in recent years, probably because of Festival counter-attractions in the district.On the platform with Sir Ernest Barker, the chief speaker, were the President (Mr. Donald Hopewell) in the chair, Dr. Phyllis Bentley, Mr. W. L. Andrews, Lord Stamford, Mr. W. T. Vint and the Rector of Haworth (the Rev. W. T. Dixon).

Social Contract. Essays by Locke, Hume and Rousseau.

Contents: Introduction, Sir Ernest Barker; An Essay Concerning the True Original, Extent and End of Civil Government, John Locke; Of the Original Contract, David Hume; The Social Contract, J.J. Rousseau.

Father of the Man. By Sir Ernest Barker. (National Council of Social Service; 5s) - Ploughman’s Wisdom. By Norman Carew. (Faber ; 15s.) - West Country Short Stories. Chosen by Lewis Wilshire. (Faber; 12s. 6d .)

Father of the Man. By Sir Ernest Barker. (National Council of Social Service; 5s) - Ploughman’s Wisdom. By Norman Carew. (Faber ; 15s.) - West Country Short Stories. Chosen by Lewis Wilshire. (Faber; 12s. 6d .)

Civilization on Trial

Journal Article Civilization on Trial Get access Civilization on Trial. By Arnold J. Toynbee. London, Oxford University Press, 1948. vii + 263 pp. 8″ × 5″. 12s. 6d.$3.50. Ernest Barker Ernest Barker Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 25, Issue 2, April 1949, Page 192, https://doi.org/10.2307/3017381 Published: 01 April 1949

Father of the Man. Ernest Barker Sir

Father of the Man. Ernest Barker Sir

An Exposition of Empire

An Exposition of Empire Get access An Exposition of Empire. By C. E. Carrington 1947. (London: Cambridge University Press. Current Problems 28. General Editor: Sir Ernest Barker. 7″ × 4¼″. vii + 140 pp. Index. 3s. 6d.) Nicholas Mansergh Nicholas Mansergh Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 24, Issue 2, April 1948, Pages 271–272, https://doi.org/10.2307/3018029 Published: 01 April 1948

Essays on Government, by Ernest Barker

Essays on Government, <i>by Ernest Barker</i>

The Development of Public Services in Western Europe, 1660-1930. Sir Ernest Barker

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsThe Development of Public Services in Western Europe, 1660-1930. Sir Ernest Barker C. Herman PritchettC. Herman Pritchett Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Political Economy Volume 54, Number 6Dec., 1946 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/256445 Views: 3Total views on this site Copyright 1946 The University of Chicago PressPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Universities and the Needs of the Community

UNDER the title "Some Comparisons between Universities", the proceedings of the Second Education Conference of the Association of University Professors and Lecturers of the Allied Countries in Great Britain have now been published*. The report includes a summary of the proceedings by Prof. R. D. Laurie and a foreword by Sir Ernest Barker which emphasizes the wide range of thought which was pooled at the Conference. None of the British universities and none of the Western universities have, as Prof. E. Vermeil noted in an address on "The University Spirit in Germany and in the Western Democracies", succumbed to the domination of a political dogma, and similarly, as Mr. Willard Connely reminded the Conference, American universities were among the first in the United States to see the inevitability of American participation in the world struggle for freedom.

Scientific Method in Government

THE Riddell Memorial Lectures entitled “The Unknown State”*, delivered before the University of Durham by Lord Eustace Percy, represent a noteworthy plea for the study of government. They are indeed partly addressed to the scientific worker, and were delivered in the belief that a revival of the neglected study of government is the most urgent need of the present day, and that universities have a special responsibility to make it a learned study. Whether that responsibility can rightly be placed upon the universities is a matter of opinion; but no one who has considered Sir Ernest Barker's views on this problem of government, or J. T. MacCurdy's suggestive chapters in “The Structure of Morale” or has noted the difficulties into which the administration is being continually led from the Cabinet level downwards for lack of attention to the fundamental machinery of government, can doubt the need for critical inquiry if not independent research in this field, or that such inquiry should be entrusted to an institution of the independent and academic type. The problem appears to lie outside the field of the National Institute for Social and Economic Research, and there is no obvious independent body to which its study could be entrusted.

Reviews

A History of Historical Writing. By James Westfall Thompson. Some Historians of Modern Europe. Edited by Bernadotte E. Schmitt. The Reformation in England. By F. M. Powicke. Church and State in Fascist Italy. By D. A. Binchy. Reflections on Government. By Sir Ernest Barker. The New Leviathan. Dy R. G. Collingwood.