Tracks in Chaos
Philosophical Orientation and Political Reflection

Raymond Geuss (Author)

9781509573448, Polity Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 April 2026

216 pages
22.9 x 15 x 1.8 cm, 0.318 kg

"Raymond Geuss is profoundly disappointed by what academic philosophy has become. These historically rich, provocative and consistently deep essays stake out a different path, one that aspires to reconnect philosophy to actual human struggle. Tracks in Chaos forwards a critical theory devoid of illusions, animated throughout by a subterranean vein of hope."
Espen Hammer, Temple University

"Nobody on the contemporary scene better embodies the ethos of critical theory than Raymond Geuss, and this latest volume brings his long-standing debate with traditional philosophy and its quest for foundations to a new pitch of intensity. Indispensable."
Jacob McNulty, Yale University

When political action is imperative, we can be tempted to look to philosophy for guiding principles. This project, however, historically has been doomed to fail. Throughout Tracks in Chaos, philosopher Raymond Geuss examines closely the consequences of this failure. In crisp and lucid prose, he ranges over topics that include political realism, reflection in politics, universalism, solidarity, our utopian aspirations, and the role of fear in motivating censorship. Geuss ultimately paints a picture that is both rich and uncompromising, as is his conclusion: that we must learn to accept incompleteness, contingency and pluralism in our search for orientation.

This is an incisive and elegant new collection of essays by one of our finest moral and political philosophers.

Preface and Acknowledgements

1. These interminable discussions that lead nowhere
2. He/she/they and we ourselves
4. Republic, democracy, electronics
5. Realism, yet again
6. Universalism
7. Must philosophy know its own history?
8. On Alasdair MacIntyre
9. Some varieties of utopia
10. Don't say that – you're frightening me
11. Solidarity
12. A conversation on politics

Notes
Index

Subject Areas: Philosophy [HP]