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Books > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Social & political philosophy
This book focuses on the idea of a modus vivendi as a way of governing political life and addressing problems characterized by pluralism or deep-rooted diversity. The individual essays illustrate both the merits and the limitations of a political theory of modus vivendi; how it might be interpreted and developed; specific challenges entailed by articulating it in a convincing form; what its institutional implications might be; and how it relates to other seminal issues and concepts in political theory; such as legitimacy, toleration, the social contract, etc. The book makes a significant contribution to the discussion on the scope and limits of liberal political theory, and on how to deal politically with deep-rooted diversity.
This book acknowledges and highlights the moral excellence embedded in black queer practices of family. Taking the lives, narratives, and creative explorations of black queer people seriously, Thelathia Nikki Young brings readers on a journey of new, queer ethical methods that include confrontation, resistance, and imagination. Young asserts that family and its surrounding norms are both microcosms of and foundations for human relationships. She discusses how black queer people are moral subjects whose ethical reflection, lived experience, and embodied action demonstrate valuable moral agency for those of us thinking about liberating and life-giving ways to enact "family." Young posits that black queer people enact moral agency in ways that ought to be understood qua moral agency. Refusing to recognize the examples from this (and any other) community, Young argues, denies us all the learning and moral growth that come from connecting with diverse human experiences. This book investigates how acknowledging and critically engaging with the moral agency within marginalized subjectivities allow us to consider and bear witness to the moral potential in us all.
This edited collection examines the relationship between three central terms-capitalism, feminism, and critique-while critically celebrating the work and life of a thinker who has done the most to address this nexus: Nancy Fraser. In honor of her seventieth birthday, and in the spirit of her work in the tradition of critical theory, this collection brings together scholars from different disciplines and theoretical approaches to address this conjunction and evaluate Fraser's lifelong contributions to theorizing it. Scholars from philosophy, political science, sociology, gender studies, race theory and economics come together to think through the vicissitudes of capitalism and feminism while also responding to different elements of Nancy Fraser's work, which weaves together a strong feminist standpoint with a vibrant and complex critique of capitalism. Going beyond conventional disciplinary distinctions and narrow debates, all the contributors to this project share a commitment to critically understanding the connection between capitalism, exploitation, and the viable roads for emancipation. They recover insights provided by classical traditions of political and social thought, but they also open new research directions adapted to the global challenges of our time.
The twenty-first century has seen an increased awareness of the forms of environmental destruction that cannot immediately be seen, localised or, by some, even acknowledged. Ecocriticism on the Edge explores the possibility of a new mode of critical practice, one fully engaged with the destructive force of the planetary environmental crisis. Timothy Clark argues that, in literary and cultural criticism, the "Anthropocene", which names the epoch in which human impacts on the planet's ecological systems reach a dangerous limit, also represents a threshold at which modes of interpretation that once seemed sufficient or progressive become, in this new counterintuitive context, inadequate or even latently destructive. The book includes analyses of literary works, including texts by Paule Marshall, Gary Snyder, Ben Okri, Henry Lawson, Lorrie Moore and Raymond Carver.
This book is an introduction to and translation of the 1938 Walter Lippmann Colloquium held in Paris, which became known as the intellectual birthplace of "neo-liberalism." Although the Lippmann Colloquium has been the subject of significant recent interest, this book makes this crucial primary source available to a wide, English-speaking audience for the first time. The Colloquium features important-often passionate-debates involving well-known intellectual figures such as Walter Lippmann, Louis Rougier, Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, Michael Polanyi, Jacques Rueff, Alexander Rustow and Wilhelm Roepke. Many of the topics addressed at the Colloquium, such as the proper methods of economic intervention, the relationship between the market economy and democracy, and the relationship between economic liberalism and political liberalism are issues that still vie for our attention in the aftermath of the Great Recession.
In the neoliberal world, rising individualism has frequently been linked to rising inequality. Drawing on social theory, philosophy, history, institutional research and a wealth of contemporary empirical data, this innovative book analyzes the tangled relationship between individualism and inequality and explores the possibilities of rediscovering individualism's revolutionary potential. Ralph Fevre demonstrates that a belief in individual self-determination powered the development of human rights and inspired social movements from anti-slavery to socialism, feminism and anti-racism. At the same time, every attempt to embed individualism in systems of education and employment has eventually led to increased social inequality. The book discusses influential thinkers, from Adam Smith to Herbert Spencer and John Dewey, as well as the persistence of discrimination despite equality laws, management and the transformation of individualism, individualism in work and mental illness, work insecurity and intensification. This multi-disciplinary book will be essential reading for students and scholars of sociology, economics, philosophy, political science, management science and public policy studies, among other subjects. It will also be of use to policymakers and those who want to know how the culture and politics of the neoliberal world are unfolding.
"David Hardwick and Leslie Marsh have assembled a contentious collection of independent thinkers on liberalism's identity and prospects. Should liberalism be democratic, classical, ordo, legalistic, culture-based, market-based, or what? The international crew of authors-from Australia, Canada, China and the USA-draw upon the insights of key historic figures from Locke to Montesquieu to Burke to Dewey to Hayek to Rawls (and of course others, given liberalism's rich history), and they leave us with a set of liberalisms both in collision and in overlapping agreement. This book is stimulating reading for those engaged with next-generation liberal thought." -Stephen R. C. Hicks, Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University. This collection redresses the conceptual hubris and illiteracy that has come to obscure the central presuppositions of classical liberalism - that is, the wresting of epistemic independence from overwhelming concentrations of power, monopolies and capricious zealotries, whether they be statist, religious or corporate in character.
This book is the first in-depth study of the representation of animals on television. It explores the variety of ways animals are represented in audio-visual media, including wildlife documentaries and children's animated series, and the consequences these representations have for those species. Brett Mills discusses key ideas and approaches essential for thinking about animals drawing on relevant debates in philosophy, politics, gender studies, humanism and posthumanism, and ethics. The chapters examine different animal representations, focusing on zoos, pets, wildlife and meat. They present case studies, including discussions of Peppa Pig, The Hunt and The Dog Whisperer. This book will be of interest to readers exploring media studies, contemporary television, animal studies, and debates about representation.
Colonialism involves more than just territorial domination. It also creates cultural space that silences and disenfranchises those who do not hold power. This process of subjugation continues today in various forms of neocolonialism, such as globalization. Postcolonialism arose in the latter half of the twentieth century to challenge the problem of coloniality at the level of our language and our actions (praxis). Postcolonialism seeks to disrupt forms of domination and empower the marginalized to be agents of transformation. In 2010, the Postcolonial Roundtable gathered at Gordon College to initiate a new conversation regarding the significance of postcolonial discourse for evangelicalism. The present volume is the fruit of that discussion. Addressing themes like nationalism, mission, Christology, catholicity and shalom, these groundbreaking essays explore new possibilities for evangelical thought, identity and practice. The contributors demonstrate the resources for postcolonial criticism within the evangelical tradition, as well as the need to subject evangelical thought to an ever-new critique to prevent the formation of new centers of domination. Evangelical Postcolonial Conversations models the kind of open dialogue that the church needs in order to respond appropriately to the pressing concerns of the world today.
This is the first comprehensive analysis of late eighteenth-century Irish patriot thought and its development into 1790s radical republicanism. It is a history of the rich political ideas and languages that emerged from the tumultuous events and colourful individuals of this pivotal period in Irish history. Stephen Small's exploration of the ideology of the movements for legislative independence, parliamentary reform, Catholic relief and separation from Britain sheds new light on the Rebellion of 1798 and the origins of Irish republican nationalism.
In the four volumes of The Development Trajectory of Eastern societies and the Theories and Practices of Socialism, the author re-examines Marx and Engels' theories on the development trajectory of Eastern societies by integrating theoretical analysis of Marxist theories and an historical investigation of socialist revolution and socialist construction around the world. The collection challenges some predominant interpretations of Marx and Engels' historical materialism by focusing on that materialism, explaining the general laws of historical development and its particular trajectory in Eastern societies; discussing the attempts of the Russian Commune to avoid the torments of the capitalist system and tracing the victories and failures of the 100-year trajectory of socialism. The significance of Marx and Engels' socialist theories for contemporary social development in the Eastern societies is henceforth laid bare. The book will be a key reference for readers studying Marxism, Marxist philosophy and the history of philosophy.
Against a backcloth of philosophical debates on science and technology, and in particular the viewpoints of Karl Marx, this three-volume set proposes to reconsider science and technology and explores how the philosophy of science and technology responds to scientific and technological evolutions and an ever-changing world. The first volume analyses Marx's reconsideration of science and technology in five parts: its positioning, its historical practice, alienation of science and technology, and its relationship with productivity and human liberty. In the second volume, viewpoints and problems of scientism and anti-scientism are discussed, covering topics such as instrumental reason, scientific optimism and pessimism, irrationalism and the deconstruction of scientism. The final volume discusses complementary value choices, the loss and awakening of scientific culture and reveals a vison for a liberal and open world of science and technology. The volumes will appeal to scholars and students interested in Marxist philosophy, the philosophy of science and technology and topics related to scientific culture.
This book differs from most others of its kind, by looking at the Hong Kong issue from China's perspective, which in turn mirrors China's own situation. Through a legal lens, the author conducts a political and cultural examination of the past and the present, and provides a comprehensive overview of the many theories and problems concerning Hong Kong. Including reflections on the theory of administrative absorption of politics, a historical review of "one country, two systems" and an analysis of the form and nature of the Basic Law, it offers a valuable reference resource for studying the historical, political and legal context of Hong Kong under the principle of "one country, two systems". Instead of over-simplifying the issue of Hong Kong or only seeing it as a Chinese regional issue, the book regards it as a central Chinese issue and the key to understanding China.
Spinoza is among the most controversial and asymmetrical thinkers in the tradition and history of modern European philosophy. Since the 17th century, his work has aroused some of the fiercest and most intense polemics in the discipline. From his expulsion from the synagogue and onwards, Spinoza has never ceased to embody the secular, heretical and self-loathing Jew. Ivan Segre, a philosopher and celebrated scholar of the Talmud, discloses the conservative underpinnings that have animated Spinoza's numerable critics and antagonists. Through a close reading of Leo Strauss and several contemporary Jewish thinkers, such as Jean-Claude Milner and Benny Levy (Sartre's last secretary), Spinoza: the Ethics of an Outlaw aptly delineates the common cause of Spinoza's contemporary censors: an explicit hatred of reason and its emancipatory potential. Spinoza's radical heresy lies in his rejection of any and all blind adherence to Biblical Law, and in his plea for the freedom and autonomy of thought. Segre reclaims Spinoza as a faithful interpreter of the revolutionary potential contained within the Old Testament.
This book presents key works of Boris Hessen, outstanding Soviet philosopher of science, available here in English for the first time. Quality translations are accompanied by an editors' introduction and annotations. Boris Hessen is known in history of science circles for his "Social and Economic Roots of Newton's Principia" presented in London (1931), which inspired new approaches in the West. As a philosopher and a physicist, he was tasked with developing a Marxist approach to science in the 1920s. He studied the history of physics to clarify issues such as reductionism and causality as they applied to new developments. With the philosophers called the "Dialecticians", his debates with the opposing "Mechanists" on the issue of emergence are still worth studying and largely ignored in the many recent works on this subject. Taken as a whole, the book is a goldmine of insights into both the foundations of physics and Soviet history.
In this thought-provoking study, Jack Russell Weinstein suggests the foundations of liberalism can be found in the writings of Adam Smith (1723-1790), a pioneer of modern economic theory and a major figure in the Scottish Enlightenment. While offering an interpretive methodology for approaching Smith's two major works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations, Weinstein argues against the libertarian interpretation of Smith, emphasizing his philosophies of education and rationality. Weinstein also demonstrates that Smith should be recognized for a prescient theory of pluralism that prefigures current theories of cultural diversity.
In the origins of Western philosophical thought, doctrines of physics intertwined with the debate between political philosophers. It is for this reason that Plato devoted his dialogues Theatetus and Parmenides to investigating and meeting the arguments of his principal philosophical adversaries. The doctrine of atomism, which developed under the influence of Parmenides' philosophy, is one that Plato refutes directly. In the modern era of philosophy and science, a revived doctrine of atomism has been treated as apolitical. Atomistic postulates lay at the root of the doctrines of Early Modern philosophers and exert a great influence upon cultural and political teachings. In order to understand Early Modern Philosophy, therefore, and especially in order to examine Early Modern political science, one must address the atomistic theory of body which lies at the root of Early Modern metaphysics. In the metaphysical domain, or in the domain of natural philosophy, the Early Modern philosophers radically reduce the role that ordinary opinion may play in political and cultural life. The majestic declarations concerning the rights of man, and the gospel of utility characteristic of the political domain of Early Modernity, therefore conceal a shrunken influence fated for the demos in the new politics. In order to take the measure of the new political science, it is necessary to take the measure of the revived doctrines of atomism. If these doctrines can be disproved, by reviving Plato's critique, we will be able to take a critical look at the political doctrines that lie upon the foundations of the politicized atomism.
Veiled women in the West appear menacing. Their visible invisibility is a cause of obsession. What is beneath the veil more than a woman? This book investigates the preoccupation with the veiled body through the imaging and imagining of Muslim women. It examines the relationship between the body and knowledge through the politics of freedom as grounded in a 'natural' body, in the index of flesh. The impulse to unveil is more than a desire to free the Muslim woman. What lies at the heart of the fantasy of saving the Muslim woman is the West's desire to save itself. The preoccupation with the veiled woman is a defense that preserves neither the object of orientalism nor the difference embodied in women's bodies, but inversely, insists on the corporeal boundaries of the West's mode of knowing and truth-making. The book contends that the imagination of unveiling restores the West's sense of its own power and enables it to intrude where it is 'other' - thus making it the centre and the agent by promising universal freedom, all the while stifling the question of what freedom is.
Foucault's intellectual indebtedness to Nietzsche is apparent in his writing, yet the precise nature, extent, and nuances of that debt are seldom explored. Foucault himself seems sometimes to claim that his approach is essentially Nietzschean, and sometimes to insist that he amounts to a radical break with Nietzsche. This volume is the first of its kind, presenting the relationship between these two thinkers on elements of contemporary culture that they shared interests in, including the nature of life in the modern world, philosophy as a way of life, and the ways in which we ought to read and write about other philosophers. The contributing authors are leading figures in Foucault and Nietzsche studies, and their contributions reflect the diversity of approaches possible in coming to terms with the Foucault-Nietzsche relationship. Specific points of comparison include Foucault and Nietzsche's differing understandings of the Death of God; art and aesthetics; power; writing and authorship; politics and society; the history of ideas; genealogy and archaeology; and the evolution of knowledge.
This book traces the origins and evolution of cybersemiotics, beginning with the integration of semiotics into the theoretical framework of cybernetics and information theory. The book opens with chapters that situate the roots of cybersemiotics in Peircean semiotics, describe the advent of the Information Age and cybernetics, and lay out the proposition that notions of system, communication, self-reference, information, meaning, form, autopoiesis, and self-control are of equal topical interest to semiotics and systems theory. Subsequent chapters introduce a cybersemiotic viewpoint on the capacity of arts and other practices for knowing. This suggests pathways for developing Practice as Research and practice-led research, and prompts the reader to view this new configuration in cybersemiotic terms. Other contributors discuss cultural and perceptual shifts that lead to interaction with hybrid environments such as Alexa. The relationship of storytelling and cybersemiotics is covered at chapter length, and another chapter describes an individual-collectivity dialectics, in which the latter (Commind) constrains the former (interactants), but the former fuels the latter. The concluding chapter begins with the observation that digital technologies have infiltrated every corner of the metropolis - homes, workplaces, and places of leisure - to the extent that cities and bodies have transformed into interconnected interfaces. The book challenges the reader to participate in a broader discussion of the potential, limitations, alternatives, and criticisms of cybersemiotics.
Jacques-Pierre Brissot was among the major architects of the French Revolution, yet history has vilified and then dismissed him. His early intellectual development was strongly influenced by Enlightenment ideas and aspirations. However, his own remarkable construct of a just, democratic society, universal suffrage, and a renewed humanity living in moral and political freedom foreshadowed many present-day ideologies. The prevailing view of Brissot has pigeonholed him as Brissot, the police spy, a label difficult to remove. Although this contention has been disputed at some length, Loft presents an alternative view of the forces that shaped Brissot's social and political activism. Tracing the gradual evolution of his ideology from its earliest stages reveals that he did not suddenly become a radical in the mid-1780s. An open, objective, and thorough evaluation of Brissot's work uncovers the roots of his lifelong commitment to reformist, egalitarian, and democratic ideals. To understand Brissot, the man and his work, one must assess the cultural, intellectual, and political influences that surrounded him. Loft offers the necessary fusion of text and context, providing a serious reconsideration of Brissot and his contributions to the history of human rights. Scholars and other researchers of the French Revolution and European political thought will find this study of particular value. |
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