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How long does it take to read Moral Politics?

what conservatives know that liberals don't

George Lakoff

Moral Politics by George Lakoff takes about 7 hours 43 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.

About 7 hours 43 minutes

A weekend read

First published 1996. 421 pages, about 115,775 words.

16 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 12 hours 52 minutes
Average, 250 words a minute 7 hours 43 minutes
Fast, 400 words a minute 4 hours 49 minutes

The page count is the median across 5 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.

About the book

What do conservatives know that liberals don't? According to George Lakoff, they know that American politics is about morality and the family. Moral Politics takes a fresh look at how we think and talk about politics and shows that political and moral ideas develop in systematic ways from our models of ideal families. Lakoff reveals how family-based moral values determine views on such diverse issues as crime, gun control, taxation, social programs, and the environment. He shows why it is consistent for conservatives to oppose subsidies for the poor but endorse them for business, or for liberals to oppose the death penalty but support abortion. He also explains why liberal and conservative stances contain the constellations of policies they do. Drawing on studies showing that we think in terms of metaphorical concepts, Lakoff analyzes the language of political discourse and finds it rife with metaphors. He shows how both liberals and conservatives link morality to politics through the concept of family. But they diverge in their opposing ideas of what an ideal family is. Conservative metaphors are united by the concept of a patriarchal family in which the parent's role is to develop self-discipline in the child by enforcing strict rules. By contrast, liberals view caring interaction in the family as the most effective means of creating competent and responsible children.

Subjects: Conservatisme, Conditions morales, Politieke ethiek, Morale politique, Libéralisme, Social ethics

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