This title presents a critical examination of the contemporary debates in Europe and the international community over 'incitement to religious hatred' and the 'defamation of religions'. Today, a new notion of blasphemy has arrived on the international political scene in the form of United Nations resolutions condemning the "defamation of religions" and national laws restricting religiously offensive speech. In the days of Moses, God defended His own honour. In the biblical worldview, blasphemy was the direct verbal abuse of the divine person, punishable by death. For the medievals, it was taken as a threat to civil order. Unlike the biblical and medieval discourse, however, this new debate turns on the feelings of the believers themselves. Meanwhile, artists and public figures face trial for "inciting religious hatred". What is the proper balance between freedom and equal respect for persons? When, if ever, is religious offense not only legally permissible but morally appropriate in a pluralistic democracy? "The Future of Blasphemy" goes beyond the headlines to critically examine the contemporary debates in the international community. It advances a balanced defence of freedom of expression that gives full consideration to the value of equality along with freedom of conscience and religion.

Critical theory is one of the most important and exciting areas within the study of international relations. Its purpose is not only to describe how the world operates but also to help us imagine how we might achieve a more equitable and sustainable way of life. Presenting key concepts and thinkers, notably Theodor Adorno and Michel Foucault, this book provides an evaluation of the field and suggests how critical thinking can contribute to confronting the challenges of the twenty-first century. It argues that current critiques of critical theory in international relations can only be overcome if we engage with ideas from outside of the western tradition. -- .

This book bridges medieval and contemporary philosophical thinkers, examining the relationship between fiction and philosophy for bringing about social change. Drawing on the philosophical reading and writing practices of medieval author Christine de Pizan and twentieth-century philosopher Luce Irigaray, and through an engagement with Hans-Georg Gadamer's work on tradition and hermeneutics, it develops means to re-write the stories and ideas that shape society. It argues that reading for change is possible; by increasing our capacity to perceive and engage tradition, we become more capable of positively shaping the forces that shape us. Following the example of the two women whose work it explores, Story and Philosophy works through philosophy and narrative to deeply transform the allegorical, political, and continental tradition it engages. It is essential reading for students and scholars interested in medieval studies, feminist studies, and critical theory.

This book explores the ways in which different generations think about how the welfare state is organised at present, and how it will be organised in future. Using the results of a study from Canada, Australia and Sweden, the book's findings complement more traditional studies of the welfare sector, capturing the anxieties of citizens about the present and future of their countries' welfare models, and presenting their thoughts on how the system can be re-organised in future. Positioning their three-country study within the history of the welfare state around the world, the authors seek to re-assess the role of the welfare state in governments around the world. Their findings will be of interest to those studying welfare policy as well as innovations such as basic income, e-health and policy responses to automisation.

This is the first of four volumes to be published as part of this book series, on the life and work of Richard Ned Lebow. In a career spanning six decades, Richard Ned Lebow has made important contributions to the study of international relations, political and intellectual history, motivational and social psychology, philosophy of science, and classics. He has authored, coauthored or edited 30 books and almost 250 peer-reviewed articles. These four volumes are excerpts from this corpus. The first volume includes an intellectual autobiography, bibliography, and assessments of Lebow's contributions to diverse fields by respected authorities. It shows how a scholar's agenda evolves in response to world events and his efforts to grapple with them theoretically and substantively. It elaborates pathways for addressing these events and their consequences in an interdisciplinary manner, and offers new concepts and methods for doing so. Richard Lebow's research bridges international relations, psychology, history, classics, political theory and philosophy of science. He is author, coauthor, or editor of 34 books and almost 250 peer reviewed articles. Contributors to the book are: Simon Reich - Mervyn Frost - Janice Gross Stein - Stefano Guzzini - Markus Kornprobst - Harald Muller - Christian Wendt - Robert English.

This is an ambitious work on constitutional theory. Influenced by the views of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Sean Wilson tackles the problem of how a judge can obey a document written in ordinary, flexible language. He argues that whether something is "constitutional" is not an historical fact, but is an artisan judgment. Criteria are set forth showing why some judgments represent superior connoisseurship and why others do not. Along the way, Wilson offers a potent critique of originalism. He not only explains this belief system, but shows why it is inherently incompatible with the American legal system. His conclusion is that originalism can only be understood as a legal ideology, not a meaningful contribution to philosophy of law. The ways of thinking about constitutional interpretation provided in the book end up challenging the scholarship of Ronald Dworkin and numerous law professors. And the findings also challenge the way that professors of politics often think about whether a judge has "followed law."

This book brings together twelve of the most important legal philosophers in the Anglo-American and Civil Law traditions. The book is a collection of the papers these philosophers presented at the Conference on Neutrality and Theory of Law, held at the University of Girona, in May 2010. The central question that the conference and this collection seek to answer is: Can a theory of law be neutral? The book covers most of the main jurisprudential debates. It presents an overall discussion of the connection between law and morals, and the possibility of determining the content of law without appealing to any normative argument. It examines the type of project currently being held by jurisprudential scholarship. It studies the different approaches to theorizing about the nature or concept of law, the role of conceptual analysis and the essential features of law. Moreover, it sheds some light on what can be learned from studying the non-essential features of law. Finally, it analyzes the nature of legal statements and their truth values. This book takes the reader a step further to understanding law.

This book is the first authoritative text on virtue jurisprudence - the belief that the final end of law is not to maximize preference satisfaction or protect certain rights and privileges, but to promote human flourishing. Scholars of law, philosophy and politics illustrate here the value of the virtue ethics tradition to modern legal theory.

If, as Walter Benjamin believed, 'historical understanding is to be viewed primarily as an afterlife of that which is to be understood', what are the afterlives of the central concepts of modern European philosophy today? These essays reflect on the afterlives of three such concepts - 'the transcendental', 'the universal' and 'otherness' - as they continue to animate philosophical discussion at and beyond the limits of the discipline. Anthropology, law, mathematics and politics each provide occasions for testing the historical durability and transformative capacity of these concepts.

In the last decade, science in the United States has become increasingly politicized, as government officials have been accused of manipulating, distorting, subverting, and censoring science for ideological purposes. Political gamesmanship has played a major role in many different areas of science, including the debate over global climate change, embryonic stem cell research, government funding of research, the FDA's approval process, military intelligence related to Iraq, research with human subjects, and the teaching of evolution in public schools.
In Playing Politics with Science, David B. Resnik explores the philosophical, political, and ethical issues related to the politicalization of science and develops a conceptual framework for thinking about government restrictions on scientific practice. Resnik argues that the public has a right and a duty to oversee scientific research to protect important social values and hold scientists accountable for their actions, but that inappropriate government control over science can erode the integrity and trustworthiness of research, hamper scientific creativity and innovation, undermine the fairness and effectiveness of government and policies informed by science, discourage talented researchers from working for the government, and violate the freedom of scientists.
Resnik also makes policy recommendations for protecting science from politicalization, and maintains that scientific autonomy and government control must be properly balanced so that restrictions on science can benefit society without undermining scientific research, education, and expert advice.

Tracing the evolution of French sociology from the early twentieth century to the present day, this insightful book brings to the fore the renowned origins but relatively slow development of the discipline in France. Divided into four chronological sections it focuses on the social changes and institutional transformations that have impacted on the history of sociology in France as it relates to both higher education and research. In doing so, it draws attention to three major features of French sociology: the imbalance between theory and method caused by its philosophical roots, the difficulty of locating it in relation to other disciplines, and the close links between sociology and political thought and action.

This book explores the politics of narco-killing and public attitudes to violence and death in the Mexican Drug War. It examines questions such as the culture of human sacrifice, the religious principles that sanction egregious violence and most importantly the society's complex response strategies towards such violence. Primarily a philosophical reflection, this study nonetheless uses anthropological, architectural and sociological methods to provide an interdisciplinary explanation to the visceral, commonplace violence taking place in contemporary Mexico.

Subterranean Politics and Freud's Legacy reclaims psychoanalysis as an ally to critical theory's efforts to restore subjectivity and oppose systemic domination in modernity. Buzby achieves this aim by reimagining Freud as a militant optimist, compassionate practitioner, and innovator whose work still supports democratic processes. The most important contribution of this book, however, is the renewal of the radical psychoanalytic foundations of critical theory. A return to these psychoanalytic foundations restores the compassion of critical theory and grants crucial access to the psychological foundations of domination. Given the ongoing crisis of identity and purpose within critical theory, Subterranean Politics and Freud's Legacy marks a significant advancement in contemporary political theory.

The study of anarchism as a philosophical, political, and social movement has burgeoned both in the academy and in the global activist community in recent years. Taking advantage of this boom in anarchist scholarship, Nathan J. Jun and Shane Wahl have compiled twenty-six cutting-edge essays on this timely topic in New Perspectives on Anarchism. This collection of essays is unique in its global and multi-cultural scope, as its contributors hail from across the globe. The scholars and activists featured in New Perspectives on Anarchism view anarchism from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including philosophy, political science, religion, sociology, and ecology. Together, they attest to the vibrancy, intrepidity, and diversity of contemporary anarchist studies both within and without the academy. New Perspectives on Anarchism's broad approach to anarchism will make it appealing to scholars and political activists from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds.

This book conceptualizes international law as an expression of practical reason, focusing on the genesis of modern international law in the essence of the concept of sovereignty. Utilizing the philosophical method of R.G. Collingwood, the essence of sovereignty is sought in a dialectical model drawn from the philosophy of David Hume. John Martin Gillroy transcends conventional social scientific method, political theory, and its understanding of global governance to make the study of the philosophical underpinnings of international law accessible, grounded, and practical. This book provides analytic tools for understanding globalization, international legal thought, legal theory, and political philosophy, offering engaging insights on a complex field of study. It outlines the first of three arguments describing the evolution of international law as a manifestation of practical reason through an application of philosophical method to the source, locus, and scope of the concept of sovereignty. It moves from a dialectic balance favoring utility, to a balance dominated by legal right, and finally to a dialectic of duty to humanity and nature.

How is a legitimate state possible? Obedience, coercion, and intrusion are three ideas that seem inseparable from all government and seem to render state authority presumptively illegitimate. This book exposes three fallacies inspired by these ideas and in doing so challenges assumptions shared by liberals, libertarians, cultural conservatives, moderates, and Marxists. In three clear and tightly-argued essays William Edmundson dispels these fallacies and shows that living in a just state remains a worthy ideal. This is an important book for all philosophers, political scientists, and legal theorists as well as readers interested in the views of Rawls, Dworkin, and Nozick, many of whose central ideas are subjected to rigorous critique.

This interdisciplinary work draws on research from psychology and behavioral economics to evaluate the plausibility of moral contract theory. In a compelling manner with implications for moral theory more broadly, the author s novel approach resolves a number of key contingencies in contractarianism and contractualism.
Acting in accordance with principles that we could all agree to under certain conditions requires that agents are capable of taking up the perspectives of others. Research in social and developmental psychology shows just how challenging this can be. The author discusses in detail what implications findings on perspective-taking have for contract theory. He concludes with cautious optimism that, despite our limitations, it lies within our power to become better at perspective-taking and to adopt a contractarian or contractualist mode of moral thinking. This does however require us to be much more attentive to the standpoints of others than we tend to be.
Contract theorists also assume that agents can be moved to comply with principles that would be the object of agreement, with some arguing they can be so moved out of their own interest. The book show that, in contrast to the suspicion of many philosophers, this idea is largely supported by research on the dynamics of trust and our ability to distinguish trustworthy from untrustworthy others. Bringing a welcome dose of realism to the debate on contract theory, the author shows the value of assessing moral theories from an empirical perspective."

The Heart of Judgment explores the nature, historical significance, and continuing relevance of practical wisdom. Primarily a work in moral and political thought, it also relies extensively on research in cognitive neuroscience to confirm and extend our understanding of the faculty of judgment. Ever since the ancient Greeks first discussed practical wisdom, the faculty of judgment has been an important topic for philosophers and political theorists. It remains one of the virtues most demanded of our public officials. The greater the liberties and responsibilities accorded to citizens in democratic regimes, the more the health and welfare of society rest upon their exercise of good judgment. While giving full credit to the roles played by reason and deliberation in good judgment, the book underlines the central importance of intuition, emotion, and worldly experience.

This is an in-depth analysis of dramatization as method in the work of Deleuze and Guattari. It provides an account of the value of this method for the study of the political with particular emphasis on the relationship between politics and art.

Using an interdisciplinary approach, this book explores the emerging topics and rapid technological developments of robotics and artificial intelligence through the lens of the evolving role of sex robots, and how they should best be designed to serve human needs. An international panel of authors provides the most up-to-date, evidence-based empirical research on the potential sexual applications of artificial intelligence. Early chapters discuss the objections to sexual activity with robots while also providing a counterargument to each objection. Subsequent chapters present the implications of robot sex as well as the security and data privacy issues associated with sexual interactions with artificial intelligence. The book concludes with a chapter highlighting the importance of a scientific, multidisciplinary approach to the study of human - robot sexuality. Topics featured in this book include: The Sexual Interaction Illusion Model. The personal companion system, Harmony, designed by Realbotix (TM). An exposition of the challenges of personal data control and protection when dealing with artificial intelligence. The current and future technological possibilities of projecting three-dimensional holograms. Expert discussion notes from an international workshop on the topic. AI Love You will be of interest to academic researchers in psychology, robotics, ethics, medical science, sociology, gender studies as well as clinicians, policy makers, and the business sector.

This very first analysis of Spinoza's philosophy of law from the viewpoint of his deterministic ontology shows that he revolutionized modern philosophy from within by developing an entirely new natural law theory connecting his ontology to radically democratic political views. The book forms a balanced structure in which the three conceptual pillars of Spinoza's natural law theory (individuality, natural laws, and power) are first analyzed from the viewpoint of his ontology and then from the viewpoint of his political theory. Spinoza's revolutionary equivalence of law to power is regarded as the core simultaneously of an ethical individualistic project, of a democratic alternative to modern State politics, and of an amoral naturalistic philosophy of law. The author concludes that Spinoza develops a new type of progressive individualism still left to explore that revolutionizes both modern natural law and contemporary radical democratic studies.

Rational thought according to Levinas has the merit of making the world lucid and controllable. But at the same time it strips things and people of their identity and incorporates them in a homogenized rational order. Illusory, but nonetheless oppressive. Rationality's totalitarian character can provoke resistance and grief with people who are enlisted by it. This can lead to a shameful confrontation in which the thinker is being confronted with his victim's resistance and sees himself and his thinking made questionable. By proceeding along this route, thinking can be brought to self-criticism and to revision of standpoints.

This description by Levinas of rational thinking shows similarity to what managers do in organizations. They make their business controllable, but at the same time with their planning and schemes they create a totalitarian straitjacket. This similarity suggests that also the reactions to imperialistic rationality from Levinas' description ought to be found in organizations. Is it indeed possible to indicate there the kind of resistance and grief Levinas speaks about? Does that give rise to confrontations between managers and their co-workers who are supposed to subordinate to their schemes? Do managers then feel shame? And do those shameful confrontations consequently lead to self-reflection and change?

Desk research suggests that the above elements are partly to be found in the literature of management theory. Interviews with managers show that Levinas' line of thought can also be found in its completeness within organizations. At the same time it becomes clear that becoming conscious of the elements of that line of thought - that rationality is all-conquering, that it provokes resistance, that that can lead to shame as well as to a new beginning - this is a difficult path to travel. The related experiences are easily forgotten and sometimes difficult to excavate. Translation of Levinas' thinking into terms of management and organization can help us spot them where they play their role in organizations.

The present book is no ordinary anthology, but rather a workroom in which anthropologists and philosophers initiate a dialogue on trust and hope, two important topics for both fields of study. The book combines work between scholars from different universities in the U.S. and Denmark. Thus, besides bringing the two disciplines in dialogue, it also cuts across differences in national contexts and academic style. The interdisciplinary efforts of the contributors demonstrate how such a collaboration can result in new and challenging ways of thinking about trust and hope. Reading the dialogues may, therefore, also inspire others to work in the productive intersection between anthropology and philosophy.