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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Social & political philosophy
Technology is a crucial factor for environmental policy aimed at
industry. Stimulation of the development and application of new
technologies is a regular policy issue in most European countries.
Policy approaches in the fields of environmental and technology
policies have much in common, especially when the latter has
environment or sustainability as specific field of application. In
this book, policy integration is studied at the national level in
terms of co-ordination of policy goals, the application of means,
and advanced forms of inter-policy co-operation. These issues are
addressed through an analysis of the way public policy has dealt
with the issue of sustainable innovations by industry in recent
decades and, in particular, the conditions that lead to the
emergence of co-ordination between the environment and technology
policy fields.
Like most discussions within the tradition of rights-talk, this study is motivated by the desire to promote the idea that rights are moral assets that people should acquire in the course of their membership within social and political frameworks. However, while most participants in rights-talk concentrate on the safety and protection constraints required for a successful exercising of rights, the present study inquires into the circumstances under which people's rights lose their validity. The author believes that if we want to prevent the erosion of the role of rights within society and to encourage their obligatory status, we should prevent their misuse, or their unjustified or excessive use. Those who have interests in rights, and are concerned about their withdrawal or denial, will find a unique and inventive way of dealing both with the use, as well as the abuse of rights.
When and why is it right to kill? When and why is it wrong? Torbjoern Tannsjoe examines three theories on the ethics of killing in this book: deontology, a libertarian moral rights theory, and utilitarianism. The implications of each theory are worked out for different kinds of killing: trolley-cases, murder, capital punishment, suicide, assisted death, abortion, killing in war, and the killing of animals. These implications are confronted with our intuitions in relation to them, and our moral intuitions are examined in turn. Only those intuitions that survive an understanding of how we have come to hold them are seen as 'considered' intuitions. The idea is that the theory that can best explain the content of our considered intuitions gains inductive support from them. We must transcend our narrow cultural horizons and avoid certain cognitive mistakes in order to hold considered intuitions. In this volume, suitable for courses in ethics and applied ethics, Tannsjoe argues that in the final analysis utilitarianism can best account for, and explain, our considered intuitions about all these kinds of killing.
In The Democratic Soul, Aaron L. Herold argues that liberal democracy's current crisis-of extreme polarization, rising populism, and disillusionment with political institutions-must be understood as the culmination of a deeper dissatisfaction with the liberal Enlightenment. Major elements of both the Left and the Right now reject the Enlightenment's emphasis on rights as theoretically unfounded and morally undesirable and have sought to recover a contrasting politics of obligation. But this has re-opened questions about the relationship between politics and religion long thought settled. To address our situation, Herold examines the political thought of Spinoza and Tocqueville, two authors united in support of liberal democracy but with differing assessments of the Enlightenment. Through an original reading of Spinoza's Theologico-Political Treatise, Herold uncovers the theological foundation of liberal democracy: a comprehensive moral teaching rehabilitating human self-interest, denigrating "devotion" as a relic of "superstition," and cultivating a pride in living, acting, and thinking for oneself. In his political vision, Spinoza articulates our highest hopes for liberalism, for he is confident such an outlook will produce both intellectual flourishing and a paradoxical recovery of community. But Spinoza's project contains tensions which continue to trouble democracy today. As Herold shows via a new interpretation of Tocqueville's Democracy in America, the dissatisfactions now destabilizing democracy can be traced to the Enlightenment's failure to find a place for religious longings whose existence it largely denied. In particular, Tocqueville described a natural human desire for a kind of happiness found, at least partly, in self-sacrifice. Because modernity weakens religion precisely as it makes democracy stronger than liberalism, it permits this desire to find new and dangerous outlets. Tocqueville thus sought to design a "new political science" which could rectify this problem and which therefore remains indispensable today in recovering the moderation lacking in contemporary politics.
This interdisciplinary volume brings together specialists from different backgrounds to deliver expert views on the relationship between morality and emotion, putting a special emphasis on issues related to emotional shocks. One of the distinctive aspects of social existence today is our subjection to traumatic events on a global scale, and our subsequent embodiment of the emotional responses these events provoke. Covering various methodological angles, the contributors ensure careful and heterogeneous reflection on this delicate topic. With eleven original essays, the collection spans a wide variety of fields from philosophy and literary theory, to the visual arts, history, and psychology. The authors cover diverse themes, including philosophical approaches to political polarization; the impact of negative emotions such as anger on inter-relational balance; humour and politics; media and the idea of progress; photography and trauma discourse; democratic morality in modern Indian society; emotional olfactory experiences; phenomenological readings of spatial disorientation, and the significance of moral shocks. This timely volume offers crucial perspectives on contemporary questions relating to ethical behaviours, and the challenges of a globalized society on the verge of political, financial and emotional collapse.
The capitalist mode of destruction traces contemporary capitalism's economic, ecological and democratic crises. Combining insights from a range of disciplines, including psychology, sociology and political economy, Panayotakis interprets these crises as manifestations of a previously unrecognized contradiction: over time, the benefits of capitalism's technological dynamism tend to decline even as its threats to humanity and the planet continue to mount. To explain this contradiction, the book analyzes the production and distribution of surplus in capitalist societies and rethinks the concept of surplus itself. Identifying the public sector and households as sites of production no less important than the workplace, this book attributes capitalism's contradictions to working people's lack of control over the surplus they produce. This lack of control is undemocratic and threatens the planet. Only a classless society, in which working people democratically determine the size and use of the surplus they produce, can effectively respond to our current predicament. Recognizing such a democratic classless society as the essence of the communist ideal, the book argues that, far from becoming obsolete, this ideal is ever more indispensable. But since the necessity of this ideal does not guarantee its realization, the book also investigates the conditions necessary for the formation of an anti-capitalist alliance for social justice, democracy and ecological sustainability. -- .
"Continuum's Guides for the Perplexed" are clear, concise and accessible introductions to thinkers, writers and subjects that students and readers can find especially challenging. Concentrating specifically on what it is that makes the subject difficult to fathom, these books explain and explore key themes and ideas, guiding the reader towards a thorough understanding of demanding material. Thomas Hobbes is one of the foremost British philosophers; his Leviathan stands as one of the most important single works in the history of political philosophy, and any student of philosophy will be required to develop a thorough knowledge and understanding of Hobbes. "Hobbes: A Guide for the Perplexed" is the ideal resource for any student wishing to really engage with, and develop a sound understanding of, the work of this major philosopher. The text systematically covers all those areas of philosophy where Hobbes is a key player: metaphysics; epistemology; moral philosophy; political philosophy; the philosophy of religion. It explores Hobbes' philosophical method in depth and offers a valuable account of the historical background to Hobbes' thought. Most valuably for the student reader, this book actively promotes philosophical inquiry and interpretation. In setting out the different interpretations of Hobbes, the text requires the reader to evaluate their respective merits on the basis of the evidence provided. "Hobbes: A Guide for the Perplexed", then, is both a philosophically rigorous introduction to Hobbes and an excellent primer in philosophical method, inquiry and debate.
This edited collection brings to light the rare virtues and uncommon merits of Raymond Aron, the main figure of French twentieth-century liberalism. The Companion to Raymond Aron is an essential supplement to Aron's autobiography Memoires (1984) and main works, exploring the substance of his political, sociological, and philosophical thought.
This book focuses on a reading of Frantz Fanon's work and life, asking how the work of a revolutionary writer such as Fanon might be best appropriated for contemporary political and cultural issues. Separate chapters introduce Fanon's life and examine the question of Fanon as our contemporary; review the field of "Fanon studies" that has grown up around his work; bring Fanon into conversation with the critical contemporary figures Edward Said, Michel Foucault, Jamaica Kincaid, and Paul Gilroy; and turn to Fanon's work to think through the contemporary popular uprisings that have come to be known as the "Arab Spring." The book concludes by arguing that a reevaluation of Fanon's life and work can provide us with a particular set of lessons about solidarity-lessons that are crucial for the contemporary political struggles that face us today and that will continue to confront us in the future. Finding Something Different: Frantz Fanon and the Future of Cultural Politics is inspired by Fanon's unsparing struggle against the depredations of racism and colonialism, and his lifelong commitment to finding something different.
This volume illustrates the relevance of phenomenology to a range of contemporary concerns. Displaying both the epistemological rigor of classical phenomenology and the empirical analysis of more recent versions, its chapters discuss a wide range of issues from justice and value to embodiment and affectivity. The authors draw on analytic, continental, and pragmatic resources to demonstrate how phenomenology is an important resource for questions of personal existence and social life. The book concludes by considering how the future of phenomenology relates to contemporary philosophy and related academic fields.
"This Thing Called Trust "provides a detailed theoretical analysis of the research about trust, civic society and society capital. The author takes a comparative approach, considering the variations in both interpersonal (social) trust and trust in governmental institutions in European countries and in the U.S. He uniquely provides a complementary empirical analysis which connects discussions of the individual psychology of trust with understandings of its cultural and institutional roots at more aggregate (state or country) level.
This book proivdes an account of the nature and value of the family within a liberal society. It defines "family," and assesses the right to have a family, whether the family promotes injustice, and what future there is for the family in the face of significant changes.
This set of 44 volumes, originally published between 1924 and 1995, amalgamates a wide breadth of research on the Labour Movement, including labour union history, the early stages and development of the Labour Party, and studies on the working classes. This collection of books from some of the leading scholars in the field provides a comprehensive overview of the subject how it has evolved over time, and will be of particular interest to students of political history.
In reflecting on this book and the process of writing it, the most pervasive theme I find is that of confluence. I drew much of the energy needed to write the book from the energy that resides at the confluence, or nexus, of contrasting ideas. At the most general level, the topic of arts subsidy offered a means of exploring simultaneously two of my favorite philosophical subjects-aesthetics and politics. The risk of a dual focus is of course that you do neither topic justice. However, the bigger payoff of this strategy resides in finding new and interesting connections between two otherwise disparate topics. Developing such connections between art and politics led directly to many of the book's positive arguments for subsidy. At a deeper level, the book exploits a confluence of contrasting philosophical methodologies. The central problem of the book politically justifying state support of the arts-is cast in the Anglo American tradition of analytical philosophy. Here normative arguments of ethics and politics are scrutinized with an eye toward developing a defensible justification of state action. Yet while the book initially situates the subsidy problem within this analytical tradition, its positive arguments for subsidy draw heavily from the ideas and methods of Continental philosophy. Rather than adjudicating normative claims of ethical and political ttuth, the Continental tradition aims at the hermeneutical task of interpreting and describing sttuctures of human meaning."
By exploring the concepts of 'crisis' and 'critique', this study offers a thought-provoking re-examination of the political and social thought of Cornelius Castoriadis in light of the current world crisis and with regard to his radical critique of both the traditional Left and contemporary capitalist societies.
In this work, an internationally-respected authority in military ethics describes a wholly new kind of cyber conflict that has utterly confounded the predictions of earlier experts in information warfare. Comparing this "state-sponsored hacktivism" to the transformative impact of "irregular warfare" in conventional armed conflict, Lucas offers a critique of legal approaches to governance, and outlines a new approach to ethics and "just war" reasoning (grounded in the political philosophies of Alasdair MacIntyre, John Rawls, and Jurgen Habermas) that provides both a framework for understanding these newly-emerging norms of practice for cyber conflict, and the basis for a professional "code of ethics" for the new generation of "cyber warriors."
This book presents essays and scientific contributions examining the link between popular media and politics. The essays focus on the question of how political and social change, concepts of power, and utopian elements are reflected in selected films and television series. The book applies a political science perspective, covering theories from political philosophy, political sociology and international relations, and examines a wide range of movies and TV series, such as The Godfather, Fight Club, The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones. It will appeal to anyone interested in studying how political ideas, concepts and messages can be illustrated and visualized using the complex media of movies and TV series.
National identity has been the subject of much controversy and debate. Some have even suggested dropping the concept entirely. One group, Essentialists, argue that national identity is fixed, cultural, based on birth and ancestry. Another viewpoint is posited by Postmodernists who argue that national identity is malleable, invented or imagined. As alternatives, some have suggested that national identity is a hybrid of both Essentialist and Postmodernist views. And still others bypass this argument and suggest that national identity should be based on civic factors, such as shared values and norms about citizenship. While controversy and debate are healthy exercises in any science, at some point order must be established if science is to proceed. The present volume is based on the idea that national identity is an ideal-type concept; it does not completely capture reality, but is used for analytic purposes. In addition, rather than focusing on these theoretical debates, we pursue research with the idea that results from research will contribute to the field of national identity. Three areas of national identity are discussed: theoretical, national, and individual. Two chapters focus on the major theories about national identity, provide critiques, and make suggestions about the topic. In section two, six chapters provide case studies of national identity on Scotland, Ireland, Russia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Germany, and France. In section three, two case studies focus on immigrants and the challenges they face in forming their identities, especially identifying with their host countries-Belgium, and the United Kingdom. Several important conclusions may be gleaned from the contributions of the present volume. To begin with, while national identity is a slippery concept, if the field wishes to move beyond debate about fundamentals, it would be well advised to view the concept as an ideal-type as suggested by the great German scholar, Max Weber. Secondly, the case studies included in the present volume indicate that national identity is not only based on ethnicity and culture, but on such external factors as governance regimes and their changes, economic crises, wars and other forms of aggressive activity, and social demographic changes in a population. These factors affect a population at the national level. For immigrants at the individual level, developing national identity is greatly affected by four interrelated factors: 1) the degree to which they are accepted by members of the host society; 2) immigrants' language skills and physical appearances; 3) how well they are able to balance their host national identity, their ethnic identity, and acceptance of their native country; 4) and their generational status. Generally, at the national and individual levels, context and circumstances matter in developing national identity.
Most comprehensive and up-to-date book available on the extreme right and anti-fascism in Australia. Multidisciplinary contributions from historians, political scientists and sociologists.
Nature sports such as skiing, climbing, and surfing have had a significant influence on Western popular culture since the mid-twentieth century and participation in such sports continues to grow. Written in a clear and accessible style, this important book provides a comprehensive philosophical analysis of nature sports. Philosophy and Nature Sports offers an engaging inquiry into how nature sports differ from mainstream sports, how these differences are related to their value as human activities, and the role of the environments in which such sports take place. Addressing the claim that the most distinctive feature of nature sports is the relationship between participants and the natural world, the book also examines a wide range of topics, such as ethics, risk, gender construction, the social role of nature sport subcultures and the aesthetic experiences of nature sports athletes. Tying these together is the question of what it is that attracts us to nature sports and why they hold meaning for us. This is a valuable resource for students and academics in fields such as alternative sports, alternative sport subcultures, sport philosophy, sport and social issues, ethics, and phenomenology. It is also a fascinating read for outdoor educators and practitioners.
The book represents original research in a field of study rarely pursued while analysing the intellectual dimensions of disputes over ethically sensitive issues that occur in European Union politics. These disputes are generally analysed at ideological, ethical, economic and interstate levels. However, these references do not suffice in understanding the issue, which is related to a divergent perception of the essence of humanity and thus the subject matter of anthropology. The main research objective of the monograph is therefore to reconstruct the sources and the specific European Union way of thinking about the human being. Methodologically, the book expands the understanding of political anthropology within political science and presents a range of suitable instruments for pursuing anthropological research. At the theoretical level, it proposes an anthropological typology of the main currents of European political thought and reveals their prominence for the anthropological orientation of the EU's axiology. Empirically, it provides an analysis of the anthropological features of European Union institutions and policies in addition to discussing the relation between the axiological and anthropological positions of the main political and national groups within the EU.
Surviving the Twentieth Century celebrates the achievements of the renowned sociologist Joseph Maier. A superb teacher and respected scholar of formidable scope, Maier's work encompassed a variety of disciplines, including sociology, philosophy, and political science. He is well known for his comparative research on Latin America as well as Jewish law and tradition. As Judith Marcus observes, Maier helped to establish comparative-historical sociology as an acknowledged field of study. This volume records and pays tribute to his scholarship and significant public service. The volume is divided into parts reflecting the breath of Maier's intellectual interests. Contributors are drawn from a variety of fields and geographical arenas. Part 1 consists of biographical interviews and personal observations on Maier and his work by Herman Berlinski, David Berlinski, Geoffrey Lloyd, Enrique Krauze and Aaron W. Warner. Part 2 includes contributions addressing some of the main themes in Maier's work: the interaction of nationalism, community and personal identity; the impact of politics on social science; culture, politics, and religion. Contributors include Abraham Edel, William Safran, Reinhard Kreckel, Zoltan Tarr, Sandro Segre, Ludwig von Friedberg, Irving Louis Horowitz, Judith Marcus, Editfi Kurzweil, Paul Neurath, Ruth Rubinstein, Andrew P. Lyons and Harriet D. Lyons, Tony Carnes, and Elfriede Uner. Part 3 reflects the impact of Maier's work on other scholars. It includes essays on philosophy, religion, literature and intellectual responsibility. Contributors include Tom Rockmore, Laurent Stern, Edmund Leites, Alfred Schmidt, Norbert Altwicker, Rita Kuczynski, Gerard Raulet, and Peter Gottwald. Part 4 covers the influence of crisis on Jewish intellectual life, and includes contributions by Herbert Strauss, Emanuel Maier, Leon A. Feldman, Hannelore Kunzl, and Johann Maier. The volume concludes, in part 5, with personal tributes to Maier by Curt C. Silberman, C. Alexander Weinstock, and Helen Hacker. The volume includes an illuminating introduction by Judith Marcus, thematic essay by Joseph Maier, and a selected bibliography of his work. Scholars who have been influenced by Maier will welcome this volume. Those who are not familiar with the scope of his contributions will benefit from the experience of seeing how his work has affected the choices of others. This is the 24th volume issued in Transaction's distinguished scholar "(festschrift) "series.
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