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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Social & political philosophy
Edouard Glissant was a leading voice in debates centering on the
postcolonial condition and on the present and future of
globalisation. Prolific as both a theorist and a literary author,
Glissant started his career as a contemporary of Frantz Fanon in
the early days of francophone postcolonial thought. In the latter
part of his career Glissant's vision pushed beyond the boundaries
of postcolonialism to encompass the contemporary phenomenon of
globalisation. Sam Coombes offers a detailed analysis of Glissant's
thought, setting out the reasons why Glissant's vision for a world
of intercultural interaction both reflects but also seeks to
provide a correction to some of the leading tendencies commonly
associated with contemporary theory today.
For eighteenth- and nineteenth-century authors such as Burke,
Constant, and Mill, a powerful representative assembly that freely
deliberated and controlled the executive was the defining
institution of a liberal state. Yet these figures also feared that
representative assemblies were susceptible to usurpation, gridlock,
and corruption. Parliamentarism was their answer to this dilemma: a
constitutional model that enabled a nation to be truly governed by
a representative assembly. Offering novel interpretations of
canonical liberal authors, this history of liberal political ideas
suggests a new paradigm for interpreting the development of modern
political thought, inspiring fresh perspectives on historical
issues from the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries. In doing
so, Selinger suggests the wider significance of parliament and the
theory of parliamentarism in the development of European political
thought, revealing how contemporary democratic theory, and indeed
the challenges facing representative government today, are
historically indebted to classical parliamentarism.
Whereas rational choice theory has enjoyed considerable success in
economics and political science, due to its emphasis on individual
behavior sociologists have long doubted its capacity to account for
non-market social outcomes. Whereas they have conceded that
rational choice theory may be an appropriate tool to understand
strictly economic phenomena - that is, the kinds of social
interactions that occur in the gesellschaft- many sociologists have
contended that the theory is wholly unsuitable for the analysis of
the kinds of social interactions in the gemeinschaft - such as
those occurring in families, in social groups of all kinds, and in
society at large. In a variety of non-technical chapters, Rational
Choice Sociology shows that a sociological version of rational
choice theory indeed can make valuable contributions to the
analysis of a wide variety of non-market outcomes, including those
concerning social norms, family dynamics, crime, rebellion, state
formation and social order. 'Michael Hechter is one of the major
proponents of rational actor theory in the social sciences. The
book is a useful collection of some of the major articles that
cover important issues that are of general interest - in particular
collective action and social order. The book shows the wide range
of application of the theory and, hopefully, will contribute to
further increase its recognition as an important tool to explain
social phenomena.' - Karl-Dieter Opp, University of Leipzig,
Germany and University of Washington, US 'An early pioneer of
sociological rational choice, Michael Hechter has made seminal
contributions to rational choice theory over a career spanning
nearly 50 years. This book brings those contributions together in a
single volume. Although the chapters address a range of substantive
topics--fertility decisions, the value of children, collective
action, the genesis of mutiny, and state formation--at its core is
a deep concern with a fundamental question for social science: How
is social order, solidarity, and control possible in human
societies? This book provides a compelling answer from a rational
choice perspective.' - Ross L. Matsueda, University of Washington,
US
The past two decades have witnessed an intensifying rise of
populist movements globally, and their impact has been felt in both
more and less developed countries. Engaging Populism: Democracy and
the Intellectual Virtues approaches populism from the perspective
of work on the intellectual virtues, including contributions from
philosophy, history, religious studies, political psychology, and
law. Although recent decades have seen a significant advance in
philosophical reflection on intellectual virtues and vices, less
effort has been made to date to apply this work to the political
realm. While every political movement suffers from various biases,
contemporary populism's association with anti-science attitudes and
conspiracy theories makes it a potentially rich subject of
reflection concerning the role of intellectual virtues in public
life. Interdisciplinary in approach, Engaging Populism will be of
interest to scholars and students in philosophy, political theory,
psychology, and related fields in the humanities and social
sciences.
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Peter Kropotkin, Victor Robinson
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In this book, translated into English for the first time, Lelio
Demichelis takes on a modern perspective of the concept/process of
alienation. This concept-much more profound and widespread today
than first described and denounced by Marx-has largely been
forgotten and erased. Using the characters of Narcissus, Pygmalion
and Prometheus, the author reinterprets and updates Marx,
Nietzsche, Anders, Foucault and, in particular, critical theory and
the Frankfurt School views on an administered society (where
everything is automated and engineered, manifest today in
algorithms, AI, machine learning and social networking) showing
that, in a world where old and new forms of alienation come
together, man is increasingly led to delegate (i.e. alienate)
sovereignty, freedom, responsibility and the awareness of being
alive.
Power is classically understood as the playing out of relations
between the ruler and the ruled. Political impasse is often viewed
as a moment in which no clear-cut delineation of power exists,
resulting in an overwhelming sense of frustration or feeling stuck
in a no-win situation. The new globalised world has produced a real
shift in how power works: not only has power been concentrated in
the hands of very few while many millions become more oppressed by
radical shortages and growing costs, but we also have a new
category of political subjectivity in which many find themselves
neither rulers nor radically oppressed. Those who live the
neither/nor of contemporary power live the new global impasse. For
those of us who are stuck and compelled to wait for dominant power
to break, this book uncovers possibilities in thought, imagination,
and self-appropriation through oikeiosis, that is, making oneself
at home in oneself, and constancy.
Hegel's philosophy of religion contains an implicit political
theology. When viewed in connection with his wider work on
subjectivity, history and politics, this political theology is a
resource for apocalyptic thinking. In a world of climate change,
inequality, oppressive gender roles and racism, Hegel can be used
to theorise the hope found in the end of that world. Histories of
apocalyptic thinking draw a line connecting the medieval prophet
Joachim of Fiore and Marx. This line passes through Hegel, who
transforms the relationship between philosophy and theology by
philosophically employing theological concepts to critique the
world. Jacob Taubes provides an example of this Hegelian political
theology, weaving Christianity, Judaism and philosophy to develop
an apocalypticism that is not invested in the world. Taubes awaits
the end of the world knowing that apocalyptic destruction is also a
form of creation. Catherine Malabou discusses this relationship
between destruction and creation in terms of plasticity. Using
plasticity to reformulate apocalypticism allows for a form of
apocalyptic thinking that is immanent and materialist. Together
Hegel, Taubes and Malabou provide the resources for thinking about
why the world should end. The resulting apocalyptic pessimism is
not passive, but requires an active refusal of the world.
On the Pleasure of Hating, William Hazlitt's classic contemplation
of human hatred, is in this edition accompanied by several of his
finest essays. As one of England's most distinguished wits of the
early 19th century, William Hazlitt was an accomplished author,
painter and critic whose barbed prose was notorious in literary
circles at the time. Hazlitt wrote the titular essay of this
collection in 1826, when his personal circumstances were strained;
we thus find his tone both markedly resentful and embittered. On
the Pleasure of Hating is, however, among the finest and most
consistently insightful and lucid works Hazlitt ever wrote. Perhaps
Hazlitt's greatest claim to prowess was his ability to produce
succinct and quotable passages. Each of the six essays in this
compendium contain prime examples of the perceptive phrases and
summations which Hazlitt regularly produced in his prime.
At once narrative and reflective, Loving Immigrants in America: An
Experiential Philosophy of Personal Interaction is a philosophical
account of Daniel Campos's experience as a Latin American immigrant
to the United States of America. A series of interrelated personal
essays together convey this experience of walking or sauntering,
going on road trips, reading American literature in the southern
United States, playing association football (soccer or futbol),
churchgoing, and Latin dancing in the U.S. This book's central
motif is the caring saunterer, who is understood to be a person who
makes him or herself at home anywhere, even as a Latino immigrant
in the U.S. The narrative essays convey one immigrant's experience
seeking an affective, social, and intellectual home in a new land.
The intertwined philosophical reflections lead to the
recommendation of an ethic of love-resilient love-for the
day-to-day interactions and long-term relations between immigrants
and hosts in this country. The author's aim is to establish an open
and earnest philosophical dialogue with critical readers interested
in the problems surrounding immigration in the U.S. today. He
writes as an American philosopher-in the continental sense of
North, Central, and South America-whose reflections provide an
accessible and provocative angle for the development of insight
into the experiences of immigrants in the United States. Thus he
brings philosophical reflection drawn from experience, in the broad
American tradition, to bear on current issues-on the problems of
people and not of philosophers, as John Dewey might put it.
The Grundrisse is widely regarded as one of Marx's most important
texts, with many commentators claiming it is the centrepiece of his
entire oeuvre. It is also, however, a notoriously difficult text to
understand and interpret. In this - the first guide and
introduction to reading the Grundrisse - Simon Choat helps us to
make sense of a text that is both a first draft of Capital and a
major work in its own right. As well as offering a detailed
commentary on the entire text, this guide explains the Grundrisse's
central themes and arguments and highlights its impact and
influence. The Grundrisse's discussions of money, labour, nature,
freedom, the role of machinery, and the development and dynamics of
capitalism have influenced generations of thinkers, from
Anglo-American historians such as Eric Hobsbawm and Robert Brenner
to Continental philosophers like Antonio Negri and Gilles Deleuze,
as well as offering vital insights into Marx's methodology and the
trajectory of his thought. Contemporary examples are used
throughout this guide both to illuminate Marx's terminology and
concepts and to illustrate the continuing relevance of the
Grundrisse. Readers will be offered guidance on: -Philosophical and
Historical Context -Key Themes -Reading the Text -Reception and
Influence
In the 1970s, a multifaceted alternative scene developed in West
Germany. At the core of this leftist scene was a struggle for
feelings in a capitalist world that seemed to be devoid of any
emotions. Joachim C. Haberlen offers here a vivid account of these
emotional politics. The book discusses critiques of rationality and
celebrations of insanity as an alternative. It explores why
capitalism made people feel afraid and modern cities made people
feel lonely. Readers are taken to consciousness raising groups,
nude swimming at alternative vacation camps, and into the squatted
houses of the early 1980s. Haberlen draws on a kaleidoscope of
different voices to explore how West Germans became more concerned
with their selves, their feelings, and their bodies. By
investigating how leftists tried to transform themselves through
emotional practices, Haberlen gives us a fresh perspective on a
fascinating aspect of West German history.
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