Oscar Levy

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"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness" (Matthew 5:6) is as fine a sentiment as any conceived by man in his countless creeds, whether religious or political. It is, sadly, a sentiment which has brought mankind more strife than solace. In 1940, when a particularly virulent creed had plunged the world into turmoil, Oscar Levy (1867-1946) - a German-born medical practitioner and man-of-letters, best remembered as the initiator, financer and editor of the first translation into English of the complete works of Friedrich Nietzsche in eighteen volumes (Edinburgh & London: T. N. Foulis, 1909-1913) - produced The Idiocy of Idealism, cautionary thoughts on the many idealists and ideologies which have flourished down the ages. George Bernard Shaw's dust-jacket endorsement notwithstanding, Levy's wartime message went largely unheeded. Nearly eighty years on, his polemic is as pertinent, if not more so, than ever before. This facsimile of the first and hitherto only English edition of the work is published to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Oscar Levy's birth on 28th March. In The Idiocy of Idealism, Levy offers no alternative ideology a solution to our present problems - that would be a contradiction in terms - striving simply to alert us to the dangers inherent in all ideologies, in the hope that, free of such constraints, the best of which humankind is capable - artistically and intellectually - may yet be harnessed for the benefit of all who inhabit a world which diminishes in size and increases in contentiousness from day to day. Levy's first published book in English is entitled The Revival of Aristocracy (London: Probsthain & Co., 1906).