Deneen argues, for instance, that liberal political philosophy is responsible for our feelings of subjugation to modern technology — yet non-liberal societies, such as China and Japan, have also been forced by competitive pressure to pursue technological development and now similarly face the problem of fraying social bonds. (Conversely, philosophers such as Heidegger have argued that West’s tendency toward the technological domination of nature was already implicit in Plato and Aristotle, making liberalism an extension of rather than a break with pre-modern trends.)

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