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Books > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Social & political philosophy
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.
Taking seriously Jacques Lacan's claim that 'the unconscious is
politics', this volume proposes a new understanding of political
power, interrogating the assumption that contemporary capitalism
functions by tapping into forms of unconscious enjoyment, rather
than providing transcendental conditions for the articulation of
political meanings and desires. Whether we're aware of it or not,
political communication today targets the audience's libidinal
response through political and institutional language: in policies,
speeches, tweets, social media appearances, gestures and images.
Yet does this mean that current power structures no longer need
symbolic or ideological frameworks? The authors in this volume
think not. Far from demonstrating a shift to a post-ideological
age, they argue instead that such methods inaugurate an altogether
novel approach to political power. Written by leading scholars from
around the world, including Roberto Esposito and Slavoj Zizek, each
chapter reflects on contemporary power and inspires consideration
of new political potentialities, which our focus on politics in
transcendental rather than immanent terms has thus far obscured. In
so doing, Capitalism and the New Political Unconscious provides an
original and forceful exploration of the centrality of both
psychoanalytic theory and the philosophy of immanence to an
alternative understanding of the political.
Overcoming Uncertainty in Ancient Greek Political Philosophy makes
an historical and theoretical contribution by explaining the role
of opinion in ancient Greek political philosophy, showing its
importance for Aristotle's theory of deliberation, and indicating a
new model for a deliberative republic. Currently, there are no
studies of opinion in ancient Greek political theory and so the
book breaks new historical ground. The book establishes that
opinion is key for the political theories of Plato, Aristotle, and
the Stoics because each sees uncertainty as a problem that needs to
be overcome if one is to establish a virtuous polity. Since they
have different notions of the nature of the uncertainty of opinion,
they develop very different political strategies to overcome it.
The book explains that Plato's and the Stoics' analyses of
uncertainty support oligarchy and monarchy, respectively, and that
theoretical support for deliberate politics requires a more nuanced
understanding of uncertainty that only Aristotle provides.
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
This book offers a conceptual map of Habermas' philosophy and a
systematic introduction to his work. It does so by systematically
examining six defining themes-modernity, discourse ethics, truth
and justice, public law and constitutional democracy,
cosmopolitanism, and toleration-of Habermas' philosophy as well as
their inner logic. The text distinguishes itself in content and
perspective by offering a very clear conceptual map and by
providing a new interpretation of Habermas' views in light of his
overarching system. In terms of scope, the book touches upon
Habermas' broad range of works. As for method, the text illustrates
key concepts in his philosophy making it a useful reference aid. It
appeals to students and scholars in the field looking for a current
introductory text or supplementary reading on Habermas.
A dream of a better world is a powerful human force that inspires
activists, artists, and citizens alike. In this book Tom Moylan -
one of the pioneering scholars of contemporary utopian studies -
explores the utopian process in its individual and collective
trajectory from dream to realization. Drawing on theorists such as
Fredric Jameson, Donna Haraway and Alain Badiou and science fiction
writers such as Kim Stanley Robinson and China Mieville, Becoming
Utopian develops its argument for sociopolitical action through
studies that range from liberation theology, ecological activism,
and radical pedagogy to the radical movements of 1968. Throughout,
Moylan speaks to the urgent need to confront and transform the
global environmental, economic, political and cultural crises of
our time.
This book provides insights on regulatory effectiveness in the
field of food safety, by focusing on the variety of institutional
factors affecting regulatory outcomes. Drawing upon the
Institutional Analysis and Development framework, it investigates
differences in effectiveness of food safety regulation and explains
them by differences in domestic governance designs, by applying
Qualitative Comparative Analysis. The empirical focus of the book
is the food safety governance designs of 15 EU Member States, which
are investigated through the collection of an original dataset
inclusive of measures of independence and accountability of the
domestic food safety agencies, of policy capacity and of food
safety delivered. The results show the prominent role of the
institutional dimension of policy capacity in producing regulatory
effectiveness, in conjunction with an integrated model of
distribution of the regulatory tasks. As to ineffective governance,
the conjunction of low independence or low accountability with low
institutional capacity produce ineffective responses.
This book traces the intersection of dreams and power in order to
analyze the complex ways representations of dreams and paradigms of
dream interpretation reinforce and challenge authoritarian,
hierarchical structures. The book puts forward the concept of the
dreamscape as a pre-representational space that contains
anarchistic attributes, including its instability or chaotic nature
and the lack of a stable or core selfhood and identity in its
subjects. The book situates this concept of the dreamscape through
an analysis of the Daoist notions of the "transformation of things"
and hundun (chaos) and the biblical concept of tehom (the deep).
Using this conceptual framework, this book analyzes paradigmatic
moments of dream interpretation along a spectrum from radical,
anarchist assertions of the primal dreamscape to authoritarian
dream-texts that seek to reify identity, define and establish
hierarchy, and support coercive relationships between unequal
subjects. The book's key figures include William Blake, Robert
Frost, Jacob and Joseph from Genesis, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung,
Jean Rhys, Franz Kafka, and the neurobiologist J. Allan Hobson
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