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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Social & political philosophy
The end of the Soviet period, the vast expansion in the power and
influence of capital, and recent developments in social and
aesthetic theory, have made the work of Hungarian Marxist
philosopher and social critic Georg Lukcs more vital than ever. The
very innovations in literary method that, during the 80s and 90s,
marginalized him in the West have now made possible new readings of
Lukcs, less in thrall to the positions taken by Lukcs himself on
political and aesthetic matters. What these developments amount to,
this book argues, is an opportunity to liberate Lukcs's thought
from its formal and historical limitations, a possibility that was
always inherent in Lukcs's own thinking about the paradoxes of
form. This collection brings together recent work on Lukcs from the
fields of Philosophy, Social and Political Thought, Literary and
Cultural Studies. Against the odds, Lukcs's thought has survived:
as a critique of late capitalism, as a guide to the contradictions
of modernity, and as a model for a temperament that refuses all
accommodation with the way things are.
The Aporia of Rights is an exploration of the perplexities of human
rights, and their inevitable and important intersection with the
idea of citizenship. Written by political theorists and
philosophers, essays canvass the complexities involved in any
consideration of rights at this time. Yeatman and Birmingham show
through this collection of works a space fora vital engagement with
the politics of human rights.
Why should states matter and how do relations between
fellow-citizens affect what is owed to distant strangers? How, if
at all, can demanding egalitarian principles inform political
action in the real world? This book proposes a novel solution
through the concept of avant-garde political agency. Lea Ypi
grounds egalitarian principles on claims arising from conflicts
over the distribution of global positional goods, and illustrates
the role of avant-garde agents in shaping these conflicts and
promoting democratic political transformations in response to them.
Against statists, she defends the global scope of equality, and
derives remedial cosmopolitan principles from global
responsibilities to relieve absolute deprivation. Against
cosmopolitans, she shows that associative political relations play
an essential role and that blanket condemnation of the state is
unnecessary and ill-directed. Advocating an approach to global
justice whereby domestic avant-garde agents intervene politically
so as to constrain and motivate fellow-citizens to support
cosmopolitan transformations, Global Justice and Avant-Garde
Political Agency offers a fresh and nuanced example of political
theory in an activist mode. Setting the contemporary debate on
global justice in the context of recent methodological disputes on
the relationship between ideal and nonideal theorizing, Ypi's
dialectical account illustrates how principles and agency can
genuinely interact.
This book argues that ignorance of law should usually be a complete
excuse from criminal liability. It defends this conclusion by
invoking two presumptions: first, the content of criminal law
should conform to morality; second, mistakes of fact and mistakes
of law should be treated symmetrically. The author grounds his
position in an underlying theory of moral and criminal
responsibility according to which blameworthiness consists in a
defective response to the moral reasons one has. Since persons
cannot be faulted for failing to respond to reasons for criminal
liability they do not believe they have, then ignorance should
almost always excuse. But persons are somewhat responsible for
their wrongs when their mistakes of law are reckless, that is, when
they consciously disregard a substantial and unjustifiable risk
that their conduct might be wrong. This book illustrates this with
examples and critiques the arguments to the contrary offered by
criminal theorists and moral philosophers. It assesses the
real-world implications for the U.S. system of criminal justice.
The author describes connections between the problem of ignorance
of law and other topics in moral and legal theory.
This timely volume brings together a diverse group of expert
authors in order to investigate the question of phenomenology's
relation to the political. These authors take up a variety of
themes and movements in contemporary political philosophy. Some of
them put phenomenology in dialogue with feminism or philosophies of
race, others with Marxism and psychoanalysis, while others look at
phenomenology's historical relation to politics. The book shows the
ways in which phenomenology is either itself a form of political
philosophy, or a useful method for thinking the political. It also
explores the ways in which phenomenology falls short in the realm
of the political. Ultimately, this collection serves as a starting
point for a groundbreaking dialogue in the field about the nature
of the relationship between phenomenology and the political. It is
a must-read for anyone who is interested in phenomenology or
contemporary social and political philosophy.
In Time, Capitalism and Alienation. A Socio-Historical Inquiry into
the Making of Modern Time, Jonathan Martineau offers an account of
the histories of social time in Europe, from the innovation of the
clock around 1300 to the making of World Standard Time around the
turn of the twentieth century. Approaching 'time' as a social
phenomenon traversed by various power and property relations, this
work provides a socio-theoretical and historical analysis of the
relationship between clock-time and capitalist social relations,
problematizing the rise to hegemony of a clock-time regime
harnessing various social temporalities to the purpose of
capitalist development. This book sheds light on the alienating
tendencies of the modern temporal regime and the relationship
between time and modern economic development.
In Europe and throughout the world, competence in English is
spreading at a speed never achieved by any language in human
history. This apparently irresistible growing dominance of English
is frequently perceived and sometimes indignantly denounced as
being grossly unjust. Linguistic Justice for Europe and for the
World starts off arguing that the dissemination of competence in a
common lingua franca is a process to be welcomed and accelerated,
most fundamentally because it provides the struggle for greater
justice in Europe and in the world with an essential weapon: a
cheap medium of communication and of mobilization.
However, the resulting linguistic situation can plausibly be
regarded as unjust in three distinct senses. Firstly, the adoption
of one natural language as the lingua franca implies that its
native speakers are getting a free ride by benefiting costlessly
from the learning effort of others. Secondly, they gain greater
opportunities as a result of competence in their native language
becoming a more valuable asset. And thirdly the privilege
systematically given to one language fails to show equal respect
for the various languages with which different portions of the
population concerned identify. Linguistic Justice for Europe and
for the World spells out the corresponding interpretations of
linguistic justice as cooperative justice, distributive justice and
parity of esteem, respectively. And it discusses systematically a
wide range of policies that might help achieve linguistic justice
in these three senses, from a linguistic tax on Anglophone
countries to the banning of dubbing or the linguistic
territoriality principle.
Against this background, the book argues that linguistic diversity
is not valuable in itself but it will nonetheless need to be
protected as a by-product of the pursuit of linguistic diversity as
parity of esteem.
AN INTELLECTUAL BIOGRAPHY OF TWO PIONEERS OF ECO-LOGICAL LIVING
Richard Sylvan and Val Plumwood were eminent twentieth-century
Australian philosophers who, in the way of philosophers, devoted
their lives to examining fundamental assumptions about thought and
the world. Though they were both renowned logicians - and probed
metaphysics, ethics, epistemology, social and political theory and
economics - it was their determination to fuse the practical and
the intellectual, to 'walk the talk', that made them special. The
world they sought to elucidate was not primarily interior; not for
them navel-gazing or abstract theorising, but a passionate concern
about the non-human world and the non-human others with which we
share it: Sylvan was convinced of the culpability of the
philosopher who could 'fiddle while the Earth begins to burn'. They
were renowned as practical and rhetorical defenders of Australia's
forests, as zealous conservationists who not only campaigned for
the non-human world but tried to codify philosophically an
'environmental culture' that would be ethically and rationally
engaged with it. Their philosophical endeavours to provide a modern
foundation for such a culture were as much rooted in the forests
they inhabited and worked physically to protect as in the academy;
indeed Plumwood claimed that her every word had 'the thought of the
forest behind it, as the ultimate progenitor and meaning of my
speech'. To them, the separation of physical and intellectual
labour was as wrong as, and symptomatic of, human alienation from
nature; and they strove to reconnect these artificial, dangerous
dichotomies. While Sylvan strove for the general 'greening of
ethics', Plumwood became increasingly aware of other toxic
dichotomies that infused gender politics, going on to gain
recognition as a pioneering eco-feminist. Sylvan and Plumwood were
iconoclastic, even anarchic, and spoke what they believed without
concern for social nicety. In their lives and in their works they
promoted an 'eco-logic' to live by, a world view that, in the years
since their deaths, has become ever more essential. In the present
volume Dominic Hyde explores their intertwined lives and complex
ideas with lucidity, respect and clear-sighted affection.
Thomas Hobbes wrote extensively about law and was strongly
influenced by developments and debates among lawyers of his day.
And Hobbes is considered by many commentators to be one of the
first legal positivists. Yet there is no book in English that
focuses on Hobbes's legal philosophy. Indeed, Hobbes's own book
length treatment of law, A Dialogue Between a Philosopher and a
Student of the Common Laws of England, has also not received much
commentary over the centuries. Larry May seeks to fill the gap in
the literature by addressing Hobbes's legal philosophy directly,
and comparing Leviathan to the Dialogue, as he offers a new
interpretation of Hobbes's views about the connections among law,
politics, and morality. May argues that Hobbes is much more
amenable to moral, and even legal, limits on the law-indeed closer
to Lon Fuller than to today's legal positivists-than he is often
portrayed. He shows that Hobbes's views can provide a solid
grounding for the rules of war and international relations
generally, contrary to the near universal belief that Hobbes is the
bete noir of international law. To support these views, May holds
that Hobbes places greater weight on equity than on justice, and
that understanding the role of equity is the key to his legal
philosophy. Equity also is the moral concept that provides
restrictions on what a sovereign can legitimately do, and if
violated is the kind of limitation on sovereignty that could open
the door for possible international institutions.
This book (hardcover) is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS. It
contains classical literature works from over two thousand years.
Most of these titles have been out of print and off the bookstore
shelves for decades. The book series is intended to preserve the
cultural legacy and to promote the timeless works of classical
literature. Readers of a TREDITION CLASSICS book support the
mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from
oblivion. With this series, tredition intends to make thousands of
international literature classics available in printed format again
- worldwide.
Written from the perspective of a practising artist, this book
proposes that, against a groundswell of historians, museums and
commentators claiming to speak on behalf of art, it is artists
alone who may define what art really is. Jelinek contends that
while there are objects called 'art' in museums from deep into
human history and from around the globe - from Hans Sloane's
collection, which became the foundation of the British Museum, to
Alfred Barr's inclusion of 'primitive art' within the walls of
MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art - only those that have been made
with the knowledge and discipline of art should rightly be termed
as such. Policing the definition of art in this way is not to
entrench it as an elitist occupation, but in order to focus on its
liberal democratic potential. Between Discipline and a Hard Place
describes the value of art outside the current preoccupation with
economic considerations yet without resorting to a range of
stereotypical and ultimately instrumentalist political or social
goods, such as social inclusion or education. A wider argument is
also made for disciplinarity, as Jelinek discusses the great
potential as well as the pitfalls of interdisciplinary and
multidisciplinary working, particularly with the so-called
'creative' arts. A passionate treatise arguing for a new way of
understanding art that forefronts the role of the artist and the
importance of inclusion within both the concept of art and the art
world.
Locke's two groundbreaking treatises regarding sound methods of
governance are united in this complete edition. At the time these
treatises were written, English politics had undergone decades of
upheaval in the wake of the English Civil War. When Dutch monarch
William of Orange ascended to the English throne in the Glorious
Revolution of 1688, burning questions over the best form of
governance for England were prominent in the intelligentsia of the
era. It was a time when England grappled with its incremental
transition from monarchy to early forms of democracy and right to
vote, where dynastic monarchy and religious theory still held
considerable power over the formation of the state. Lauded as a
classic of political philosophy, the treatises by Locke are a
common requirement in various educational courses concerning
political science and philosophy to this day.
Respect plays a prominent role in contemporary moral philosophy, as
well as our every-day moral thought. Ordinary discussion about
morality is often framed in terms of demands for respect or
complaints about being disrespected, yet basic questions about the
concept and role of respect are frequently overlooked. Here,
leading philosophers present their latest ideas and fresh
perspectives to point research on the topic in new directions.
Following an introduction to the historical rise of respect as a
central concept in moral discourse, Part I addresses the
fundamental questions of what respect is; its nature and basis.
Part II then examines questions in moral theory, for example what
exactly ought to be respected, what role respect plays in morality,
and which different types of respect are appropriate and morally
significant. Part III concludes with the practical application of
requirements of respect, with implications for significant moral
issues of our time including environmental ethics, social justice,
disability, bioethics, and more.
Zhang Taiyan (1868-1936) is famous for being one of the first
thinkers in China to promote revolution in the early twentieth
century. Scholars have addressed Zhang's revolutionary and
nationalist thought, but until this work there has not been any
sustained engagement with Zhang's Buddhist writings which aimed to
understand and criticize the world from the perspective of
consciousness. These philosophical works are significant because
they exemplify how, as Chinese intellectuals entered the global
capitalist world, they constantly tried to find resources to create
an alternative. As the author argues in the conclusion, this desire
to create an alternative to capitalism remained throughout
twentieth century China and continues today in the works of
critical intellectuals such as Wang Hui. Thus this work is
important not only to understand our past, but to hope for a better
future.
This book is a collection of new, published and revised essays on
the place and value of scientific realism in psychology. Through
critical analyses of contemporary psychology, essays argue that the
realist requirements of a properly scientific psychology are often
misunderstood even in the discipline's putatively scientific heart,
with profound conceptual and empirical consequences. Against this,
and in answer to recent calls to demonstrate the relevance of
realism, the essays sketch the elements of a realist program: they
discuss the recent history, development and principal features of a
distinctive, thoroughgoing, realism for psychology: its theories,
concepts, methods and applications. It thus aims to extend realism
from philosophy to psychology, articulate a realist metatheory,
clarify realism's relevance, and promote its discussion.
This edited volume focuses on gender and love as emerging through
complex "entanglements and weavings". At a time when
constructionist ideas are losing support, we interrogate
theoretical paradigms to assess if constructionist notions still
hold value or if new approaches are needed to address the effects
of materiality and non-human agency. Without claiming any unison or
definite answers, we offer situated, agential cuts into gender and
love in various discursive-material phenomena, including Biblical
and Rabbinic literature, ecosexual performance art, the writings of
Ursula Le Guin and Angela Carter, butch identities, Bengali
folktales, Ferzan OEzpetek's cinema, Golem literature, sexual
pursuits in Danish nightlife, mother-daughter relationships, women
warriors in the PKK, and BDSM performances. Artistic photographer
Sara Davidmann has contributed to the book with the cover
illustration and a creative afterword including seven photographs
on the interaction between the photographer, her studio, and LGBTQ+
people.
"Axel Honneth: Critical Essays" brings together a collection of
critical interpretations on the work of Axel Honneth, from his
earliest writings on philosophical anthropology, his reappraisal of
critical theory and critique of post-structuralism, to the
development and extension of the theory of recognition, his debate
with Nancy Fraser and his most recent work on reification. The book
also includes a comprehensive reply by Axel Honneth that not only
addresses issues and concerns raised by his critics but also
provides significant insights and clarifications into his project
overall. The book will be essential reading for all those
interested in Honneth s work, and in critical theory, philosophy
and social theory more generally.
Examining the lives and works of three iconic personalities
-Germaine de Stael, Stendhal, and Georges Cuvier-Kathleen Kete
creates a groundbreaking cultural history of ambition in
post-Revolutionary France. While in the old regime the
traditionalist view of ambition prevailed-that is, ambition as
morally wrong unless subsumed into a corporate whole-the new regime
was marked by a rising tide of competitive individualism. Greater
opportunities for personal advancement, however, were shadowed by
lingering doubts about the moral value of ambition. Kete identifies
three strategies used to overcome the ethical "burden" of ambition:
romantic genius (Stael), secular vocation (Stendhal), and
post-mythic destiny (Cuvier). In each case, success would seem to
be driven by forces outside one's control. She concludes by
examining the still relevant (and still unresolved) conundrum of
the relationship of individual desires to community needs, which
she identifies as a defining characteristic of the modern world.
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