|
|
Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy
This first of a two-volume work provides a new understanding of
Western subjectivity as theorized in the Augustinian Rule. A
theopolitical synthesis of Antiquity, the Rule is a humble, yet
extremely influential example of subjectivity production. In these
volumes, Jodra argues that the Classical and Late-Ancient
communitarian practices along the Mediterranean provide historical
proof of a worldview in which the self and the other are not
disjunctive components, but mutually inclusive forces. The
Augustinian Rule is a culmination of this process and also the
beginning of something new: the paradigm of the monastic self as
protagonist of the new, medieval worldview. In this volume, Jodra
takes one of the most influential and pervasive commons
experiments-Augustine's Rule-and gives us its Mediterranean
backstory, with an eye to solving at last the riddle of socialism.
In volume two, he will present his solution in full, as a kind of
Augustinian communitarianism for today. These volumes therefore
restore the unity of the Hellenistic and Judaic world as found by
the first Christians, proving that the self and the other are two
essential pieces in the construction of our world.
Tracing the deep connections between philosophy and education, Ryan
McInerney argues that we must use philosophy to reflect on the
significance of educational practice to all human endeavour. He
uses a broad approach which takes in the relationships governing
philosophy, education, and language, to reveal education's
fundamental achievements and metaphysical significance. The
realization of educational ideals and policies are read alongside
growing skepticism regarding the theoretical and practical
significance of philosophical thinking, and the emphasis on
resource efficiency and measurable outcomes which characterise
schooling today. It is from this context that McInerney defends the
value inherent to the philosophy of education. Drawing upon
contemporary continental and analytic thinkers including Nietzsche,
Gadamer, and Wittgenstein, McInerney charts the role of education
in shaping the child's metaphysical transformation through language
acquisition. Connecting early years and primary school education,
McInerney pinpoints rationality as the crucial factor which
produces critical, thinking beings. He presents the pursuit of
philosophically minded education as a rational pursuit which
enables us to philosophise and educate others in turn, dispensing
with the epistemological and conceptual foundationalisms of the
past.
The resurgence of interest in Cicero's political philosophy in the
last twenty years demands a re-evaluation of Cicero's ideal
statesman and its relationship not only to Cicero's political
theory but also to his practical politics. Jonathan Zarecki
proposes three original arguments: firstly, that by the publication
of his De Republica in 51 BC Cicero accepted that some sort of
return to monarchy was inevitable. Secondly, that Cicero created
his model of the ideal statesman as part of an attempt to reconcile
the mixed constitution of Rome's past with his belief in the
inevitable return of sole-person rule. Thirdly, that the ideal
statesman was the primary construct against which Cicero viewed the
political and military activities of Pompey, Caesar and Antony, and
himself.
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.
Rooted in feminist ethnography and decolonial feminist theory, this
book explores the subjectivity of Palestinian hunger strikers in
Israeli prisons, as shaped by resistance. Ashjan Ajour examines how
these prisoners use their bodies in anti-colonial resistance; what
determines this mode of radical struggle; the meanings they ascribe
to their actions; and how they constitute their subjectivity while
undergoing extreme bodily pain and starvation. These hunger
strikes, which embody decolonisation and liberation politics, frame
the post-Oslo period in the wake of the decline of the national
struggle against settler-colonialism and the fragmentation of the
Palestinian movement. Providing narrative and analytical insights
into embodied resistance and tracing the formation of revolutionary
subjectivity, the book sheds light on the participants' views of
the hunger strike, as they move beyond customary understandings of
the political into the realm of the 'spiritualisation' of struggle.
Drawing on Foucault's conception of the technologies of the self,
Fanon's writings on anti-colonial violence, and Badiou's militant
philosophy, Ajour problematises these concepts from the vantage
point of the Palestinian hunger strike.
|
You may like...
Oop Sirkel
De Waal Venter
Paperback
R10
Discovery Miles 100
|