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# A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles

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A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles [Sowell, Thomas] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles

Review: Very Useful in Elucidating Reasons for Political Differences - In "A Conflict of Visions" Mr. Sowell sets out to explain why people tend to be on opposite sides of the fence, politically speaking, on so many non related issues. In this he succeeds brilliantly, in a work of elegant, convincing logic, and clearly laid out insights. There is no new information in this book, nor does it take sides in political differences, but it re-arranges what you already know and have seen in your life in a manner that decisively delivers new understanding of the world around you. Mr. Sowell's thesis is that most people fall into two idealized "visions" of human nature, what he calls the constrained (which also been called the Tragic and is generally linked with conservatives) and the unconstrained (which has also been called the Utopian and is generally linked with liberals) visions. These visions are basically intuitive (to the person who holds them, and usually anathema to the person that holds the opposing), and more or less "gut feelings" on the nature of humanity and human potential. In reality the visions individuals hold lie on a spectrum of level of constraint and although no one person would hold a 100% constrained or 100% unconstrained vision it is implicitly assumed that there is a double bump distribution of people along this spectrum, with about half holding mostly constrained visions, half holding mostly unconstrained visions, and not too many people holding a middle position. This is because the two visions are opposed and to hold equal belief in both would be logically contradictory. From his characterization of each vision the author clearly explains how the assumptions undergirding each lead to completely different conceptions in how each side even defines such issues as freedom, equality, justice and power, and why both sides argue past each other and have such a difficult time debating / convincing each other. The constrained visions basically sees man's nature as both fixed and as incapable of predicting the results of his actions in the complex world, and thus incapable of controlling those results. As such it relies on systemic measures to promote the general good of society, for example evolutionary developments of such things as free-markets, constitutional government with strict constructionist judicial interpretation, great intelligence inherited in social traditions, etc. The unconstrained vision on the other hand sees man's nature as changeable in response to articulated rationality, and sees man as not only capable of predicting the results of his actions but morally obligated to control the results of his actions for the greater good. Thus the unconstrained vision places emphasis on bodies of "surrogate" decision makers of the most intelligent to control economic and social policy for the greater good, activist judicial interpretation of law to provide the best outcome for the individual case at hand, social activism like recycling, and great intelligence inherited in the most intellectually and developed individuals of our society. The insights of the book are truly worthwhile and cover far more than I could here in a review. However, the book is not long and not too difficult to read, although it is written in a slightly dense intellectual manner which can take a few pages to get used to and is a bit repetitive. Nonetheless this is a book that will make you smarter, better able to understand where someone from an opposing political viewpoint is coming from as well as better able to understand your own viewpoint and its foundation in how you perceive, consciously or not, the character of human nature. The book is also extremely fair to each side, not trying to prove one or the other correct, but just trying to explain how each thinks and reaches the conclusions they do. Highly recommended!
Review: The Results and the Means - For those who will read little more - Great Book! Read it. Thomas Sowell writes newspaper columns that are often characterized as "conservative" although he would probably characterize himself as a "pragmatist". This book cannot be characterized as being conservative or liberal. Dr. Sowell goes out of his way to not disclose his personal views. The book is an analysis of Western thought over the last 250 years regarding the proper roll of society, expressed principally through government, in achieving a successful society. I have read several of Dr. Sowell's books and have purchased several more to read. Here he truly achieves an objective restatement of the thoughts of prominent minds over the centuries and not his personal opinions on the same subject. He writes clearly and in a manner that is easy to read and yet he documents his work with so many footnotes that it is like reading a legal brief. The first thirty or forty pages were a slight struggle because he uses terms that were not familiar to me in their context. In particular it takes a while to understand what he means by the "constrained vision" and the "unconstrained vision". That is really what the book is about. He quotes Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, John Stewart Mill, William Blackstone, Edmund Burke, Condorcet, Charles Darwin, Ronald Dworkin, Milton Friedman, John Kenneth Galbraith, William Godwin, Karl Marks, Friedrich Hayek, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Paine, Richard Posner and many other legal, economic and philosophical scholars all in an attempt to dissect their thinking. He explains how they often reach opposite conclusions from many undisputed premises. The philosophical, legal and political answer to the question of when "the end justifies the means" is a difficult one. It is easy to dogmatically answer the question but a few scenarios will quickly convince most sane people that there is really no universal answer. In describing the "constrained vision" Dr. Sowell quotes the writers who have emphasized the strict rule of law in achieving social stability. They tend to believe that the same rules should apply equally to all regardless of the outcome. Others have followed "an unconstrained vision" which he describes with their own words as being that the end result is more important than the route society takes to get there. They believe it is necessary to bend or modify rules to achieve what they view as a desirable outcome. This dichotomy in English and American common law resulted in both "Law Courts" and "Equity Courts" which administered law following the "constrained" vision in "Law" and "unconstrained" vision in "Equity" operating in parallel for hundreds of years although Dr. Sowell does not discuss this portion of our legal history. Although he uses the words of radicals like Karl Marks who clearly believed any means justified the end he sought for the world, Dr. Sowell tries to dwell more with prominent thinkers who were closer to the middle of political and economic thought and why they thought as they did. This book helped me better understand my own ambivalence about certain actions of our government, but it also convinced me that there are no universal answers to all of the problems that face society. It is unfortunate that Dr. Sowell's reputation as a conservative will probably keep many people who consider themselves liberals from reading this book. They would profit by understanding the perspective of those people with whom they are in an eternal debate. Similarly some conservatives will assume that they have little to learn from a book from someone they think they know and who could not surprise them. They might be quite surprised to find that Dr. Sowell is very non-judgmental in this book and does not side with either vision. I read this book after sending an email to Dr. Sowell to complement him on a newspaper article he had written about illegal immigration. His reply was that I had misunderstood his reasoning and that population was not the problem generating the migration of the poor from undeveloped areas. He suggested that I read portions of several of his books where he had elaborated on the issue. I have done so and still disagree with him on the population issue, but have found the writings on political philosophy of a writer whose work is woefully under appreciated. If you read "A conflict of Visions" or his book on the Economics and Politics of Race you will find it impossible to finish them without your opinions being forever altered in many respects. Jim Fuqua

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #17,764 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #18 in Theory of Economics #39 in Political Conservatism & Liberalism #56 in History & Theory of Politics |
| Customer Reviews | 4.8 out of 5 stars 1,835 Reviews |

## Images

![A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71DP8SIROtL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very Useful in Elucidating Reasons for Political Differences
*by D***S on November 27, 2008*

In "A Conflict of Visions" Mr. Sowell sets out to explain why people tend to be on opposite sides of the fence, politically speaking, on so many non related issues. In this he succeeds brilliantly, in a work of elegant, convincing logic, and clearly laid out insights. There is no new information in this book, nor does it take sides in political differences, but it re-arranges what you already know and have seen in your life in a manner that decisively delivers new understanding of the world around you. Mr. Sowell's thesis is that most people fall into two idealized "visions" of human nature, what he calls the constrained (which also been called the Tragic and is generally linked with conservatives) and the unconstrained (which has also been called the Utopian and is generally linked with liberals) visions. These visions are basically intuitive (to the person who holds them, and usually anathema to the person that holds the opposing), and more or less "gut feelings" on the nature of humanity and human potential. In reality the visions individuals hold lie on a spectrum of level of constraint and although no one person would hold a 100% constrained or 100% unconstrained vision it is implicitly assumed that there is a double bump distribution of people along this spectrum, with about half holding mostly constrained visions, half holding mostly unconstrained visions, and not too many people holding a middle position. This is because the two visions are opposed and to hold equal belief in both would be logically contradictory. From his characterization of each vision the author clearly explains how the assumptions undergirding each lead to completely different conceptions in how each side even defines such issues as freedom, equality, justice and power, and why both sides argue past each other and have such a difficult time debating / convincing each other. The constrained visions basically sees man's nature as both fixed and as incapable of predicting the results of his actions in the complex world, and thus incapable of controlling those results. As such it relies on systemic measures to promote the general good of society, for example evolutionary developments of such things as free-markets, constitutional government with strict constructionist judicial interpretation, great intelligence inherited in social traditions, etc. The unconstrained vision on the other hand sees man's nature as changeable in response to articulated rationality, and sees man as not only capable of predicting the results of his actions but morally obligated to control the results of his actions for the greater good. Thus the unconstrained vision places emphasis on bodies of "surrogate" decision makers of the most intelligent to control economic and social policy for the greater good, activist judicial interpretation of law to provide the best outcome for the individual case at hand, social activism like recycling, and great intelligence inherited in the most intellectually and developed individuals of our society. The insights of the book are truly worthwhile and cover far more than I could here in a review. However, the book is not long and not too difficult to read, although it is written in a slightly dense intellectual manner which can take a few pages to get used to and is a bit repetitive. Nonetheless this is a book that will make you smarter, better able to understand where someone from an opposing political viewpoint is coming from as well as better able to understand your own viewpoint and its foundation in how you perceive, consciously or not, the character of human nature. The book is also extremely fair to each side, not trying to prove one or the other correct, but just trying to explain how each thinks and reaches the conclusions they do. Highly recommended!

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Results and the Means
*by J***A on September 24, 2007*

For those who will read little more - Great Book! Read it. Thomas Sowell writes newspaper columns that are often characterized as "conservative" although he would probably characterize himself as a "pragmatist". This book cannot be characterized as being conservative or liberal. Dr. Sowell goes out of his way to not disclose his personal views. The book is an analysis of Western thought over the last 250 years regarding the proper roll of society, expressed principally through government, in achieving a successful society. I have read several of Dr. Sowell's books and have purchased several more to read. Here he truly achieves an objective restatement of the thoughts of prominent minds over the centuries and not his personal opinions on the same subject. He writes clearly and in a manner that is easy to read and yet he documents his work with so many footnotes that it is like reading a legal brief. The first thirty or forty pages were a slight struggle because he uses terms that were not familiar to me in their context. In particular it takes a while to understand what he means by the "constrained vision" and the "unconstrained vision". That is really what the book is about. He quotes Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, John Stewart Mill, William Blackstone, Edmund Burke, Condorcet, Charles Darwin, Ronald Dworkin, Milton Friedman, John Kenneth Galbraith, William Godwin, Karl Marks, Friedrich Hayek, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Paine, Richard Posner and many other legal, economic and philosophical scholars all in an attempt to dissect their thinking. He explains how they often reach opposite conclusions from many undisputed premises. The philosophical, legal and political answer to the question of when "the end justifies the means" is a difficult one. It is easy to dogmatically answer the question but a few scenarios will quickly convince most sane people that there is really no universal answer. In describing the "constrained vision" Dr. Sowell quotes the writers who have emphasized the strict rule of law in achieving social stability. They tend to believe that the same rules should apply equally to all regardless of the outcome. Others have followed "an unconstrained vision" which he describes with their own words as being that the end result is more important than the route society takes to get there. They believe it is necessary to bend or modify rules to achieve what they view as a desirable outcome. This dichotomy in English and American common law resulted in both "Law Courts" and "Equity Courts" which administered law following the "constrained" vision in "Law" and "unconstrained" vision in "Equity" operating in parallel for hundreds of years although Dr. Sowell does not discuss this portion of our legal history. Although he uses the words of radicals like Karl Marks who clearly believed any means justified the end he sought for the world, Dr. Sowell tries to dwell more with prominent thinkers who were closer to the middle of political and economic thought and why they thought as they did. This book helped me better understand my own ambivalence about certain actions of our government, but it also convinced me that there are no universal answers to all of the problems that face society. It is unfortunate that Dr. Sowell's reputation as a conservative will probably keep many people who consider themselves liberals from reading this book. They would profit by understanding the perspective of those people with whom they are in an eternal debate. Similarly some conservatives will assume that they have little to learn from a book from someone they think they know and who could not surprise them. They might be quite surprised to find that Dr. Sowell is very non-judgmental in this book and does not side with either vision. I read this book after sending an email to Dr. Sowell to complement him on a newspaper article he had written about illegal immigration. His reply was that I had misunderstood his reasoning and that population was not the problem generating the migration of the poor from undeveloped areas. He suggested that I read portions of several of his books where he had elaborated on the issue. I have done so and still disagree with him on the population issue, but have found the writings on political philosophy of a writer whose work is woefully under appreciated. If you read "A conflict of Visions" or his book on the Economics and Politics of Race you will find it impossible to finish them without your opinions being forever altered in many respects. Jim Fuqua

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Simply the Best Book I've Ever Read
*by V***D on July 18, 2012*

This book should be standard reading for every college student. You have to wonder why people keep arguing over the same facts. It's objective, so it's not threatening to people of either vision to read, though in looking at it my conclusion is that the view opposite mine is a sort of mental disorder, but perhaps someone from the other view would see the opposite as true. Nearly every political position can be boiled down to either a constrained or unconstrained vision. Essentially, whether man is all knowing enough to make decisions to produce the desired results in society or whether man is limited and must rely on the mechanics of processes like the "Invisible Hand" of the free market. Things go deeper than just how to reach goals like fairness, freedom, and justice, as people with the differing views don't even assign the words the same meaning. Deep stuff, but mostly a very easy read. I'm going to be looking for other books from Sowell in the future. This is seriously my favorite book ever. I have a friend of differing ideology. As Sowell discusses, there times when visions cause someone to ignore or obfuscate fact to avoid it's risk to their psychological investment in a vision. Despite claiming to have an unusually "open mind", I failed to convince him of several issues that were not even "Republican vs Democrat" in any real sense. I make no exaggeration at all. Below was the result of our discussions. Things he won't take as evidence: -MSNBC -Fox -NPR -LA Times -SJ Mercury -Huffington Post -WA Times -WA Post -NY Times -NY Post -OC Register -S&P -Gov Numbers -Business Numbers -Congressmen -Mayors -Presidents -The Dictionary His examples of argument weakness: 1. "Hiding" behind facts. 2. Insisting on dictionary definitions. 3. Having "tidy" answers to any questions of belief. His "evidence" was literally limited to cliches and statements with no evidence provided. Now, you can't cure stupid, but perhaps if he'd been exposed to a book like this to realize that his "enemies" are not in fact bad people, but simply see the world differently he'd not be so petrified of "losing" and acknowledging another vision might be correct. Or more likely, as the book mentions, neither side will have the incontrovertible evidence it takes to win the day and we'll forever be repeating the same arguments, though hopefully with greater intellectual honesty than my friend did.

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