{"product_id":"the-discovery-of-chance-the-life-and-thought-of-alexander-herzen","title":"The Discovery of Chance: The Life and Thought of Alexander Herzen","description":"\u003cp\u003eAlexander Herzenphilosopher  novelist  essayist  political agitator  and one of the leading Russian intellectuals of the nineteenth centurywas as famous in his day as Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. While he is remembered for his masterpiece My Past and Thoughts and as the father of Russian socialism  his contributions to the history of ideas defy easy categorization because they are so numerous. Aileen Kelly presents the first fully rounded study of the farsighted genius whom Isaiah Berlin called the forerunner of much twentieth-century thought.  In an era dominated by ideologies of human progress  Herzen resisted them because they conflicted with his sense of reality  a sense honed by his unusually comprehensive understanding of history  philosophy  and the natural sciences. Following his unconventional decision to study science at university  he came to recognize the implications of early evolutionary theory  not just for the natural world but for human history. In this respect  he was a Darwinian even before Darwin.  Socialism for Russia  as Herzen conceived it  was not an ideologyleast of all Marxian scientific socialismbut a concrete means of grappling with unique historical circumstances  a way for Russians to combine the best of Western achievements with the possibilities of their own cultural milieu in order to move forward. In the same year that Marx declared communism to be the solution to the riddle of history  Herzen denied that any such solution could exist. History  like nature  was contingentan improvisation both constrained and encouraged by chance.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44964143857717,"sku":"ByrdShop_0674737113","price":54.82,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780674737112.jpg?v=1770450810","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-discovery-of-chance-the-life-and-thought-of-alexander-herzen","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}