This is an important book for understanding politics. Why have we sorted into two sides? Thomas Sowell explains the two visions for politics: one vision in which law is constraining human nature and the unconstrained vision where adherents believe they can shape human behavior.

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Description

Controversies in politics arise from many sources, but the conflicts that endure for generations or centuries show a remarkably consistent pattern. In this classic work, Thomas Sowell analyzes this pattern. He describes the two competing visions that shape our debates about the nature of reason, justice, equality, and power: the "constrained" vision, which sees human nature as unchanging and selfish, and the "unconstrained" vision, in which human nature is malleable and perfectible. A Conflict of Visions offers a convincing case that ethical and policy disputes circle around the disparity between both outlooks.