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Philosophy > Political Philosophy
The Predicament of Common Responsibility
Peg Birmingham
"Peg Birmingham's reading of Arendt's work is absolutely unique. She
seeks nothing less than an ontological foundation of the political, and in
particular, the notion of human rights." -- Bernard Flynn, The New School for
Social Research
Hannah Arendt's most important contribution to
political thought may be her well-known and often-cited notion of the "right to
have rights." In this incisive and wide-ranging book, Peg Birmingham explores
the theoretical and social foundations of Arendt's philosophy on human rights.
Devoting special consideration to questions and issues surrounding Arendt's ideas of
common humanity, human responsibility, and natality, Birmingham formulates a more
complex view of how these basic concepts support Arendt's theory of human rights.
Birmingham considers Arendt's key philosophical works along with her literary
writings, especially those on Walter Benjamin and Franz Kafka, to reveal the extent
of Arendt's commitment to humanity even as violence, horror, and pessimism overtook
Europe during World War II and its aftermath. This current and lively book makes a
significant contribution to philosophy, political science, and European intellectual
history.
Christian Philosopher of State and Civil Society
Jonathan Chaplin
The twentieth-century Dutch philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd (1894–1977) left behind an impressive canon of philosophical works and has continued to influence a scholarly community in Europe and North America, which has extended, critiqued, and applied his thought in many academic fields. Jonathan Chaplin introduces Dooyeweerd for the first time to many English readers by critically expounding Dooyeweerd’s social and political thought and by exhibiting its pertinence to contemporary civil society debates. Chaplin begins by contextualizing Dooyeweerd’s thought, first in relation to present-day debates and then in relation to the work of the Dutch philosopher Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920). Chaplin outlines the distinctive theory of historical and cultural development that serves as an essential backdrop to Dooyeweerd’s substantive social philosophy; examines Dooyeweerd’s notion of societal structural principles; and sets forth his complex classification of particular types of social structure and their various interrelationships. Chaplin provides a detailed examination of Dooyeweerd’s theory of the state, its definitive nature, and its proper role vis-à-vis other elements of society. Dooyeweerd’s contributions, Chaplin concludes, assist us in mapping the ways in which state and civil society should be related to achieve justice and the public good.
Ann Ward
In Herodotus and the Philosophy of Empire, Ann Ward treats the classical writer not as a historian but as a political philosopher. Ward uses close textual analysis to demonstrate that Herodotus investigates recurring themes in the most important forms of government in the ancient world. This analysis of The Histories concludes with reflections on the problems of empire, not only for the Persians and the striving Athenians, but for our own government as well. To this end, Ward contrasts Herodotus on empire with the assumptions underlying speeches and writings of Paul Wolfowitz, Colin L. Powell, Joseph S. Nye, Jr. and Robert W. Merry.
Olúfémi Táíwò
Why hasn't Africa been able to respond to the challenges of modernity and
globalization? Going against the conventional wisdom that colonialism brought
modernity to Africa, Olúfémi Táíwò claims that Africa was already becoming
modern and that colonialism was an unfinished project. Africans aspired to liberal
democracy and the rule of law, but colonial officials aborted those efforts when
they established indirect rule in the service of the European powers. Táíwò looks
closely at modern institutions, such as church missionary societies, to recognize
African agency and the impulse toward progress. He insists that Africa can get back
on track and advocates a renewed engagement with modernity. Immigration, capitalism,
democracy, and globalization, if done right this time, can be tools that shape a
positive future for Africa.
Arthur Schopenhauer's Quantum-Mystical Theory of Justice
Raymond B. Marcin
The Divided Individual in the Political Thought of G. W. F. Hegel and Friedrich Nietzsche
Jeffrey Church
G. W. F. Hegel and Friedrich Nietzsche are often considered the philosophical antipodes of the nineteenth century. In Infinite Autonomy, Jeffrey Church draws on the thinking of both Hegel and Nietzsche to assess the modern Western defense of individuality—to consider whether we were right to reject the ancient model of community above the individual. The theoretical and practical implications of this project are important, because the proper defense of the individual allows for the survival of modern liberal institutions in the face of non-Western critics who value communal goals at the expense of individual rights. By drawing from Hegelian and Nietzschean ideas of autonomy, Church finds a third way for the individual—what he calls the “historical individual,” which goes beyond the disagreements of the ancients and the moderns while nonetheless incorporating their distinctive contributions.
Roger Berkowitz
Commentary on the financial crisis has offered technical analysis, political finger pointing, and myriad economic and political solutions. But rarely do these investigations reach beyond the economic and political causes of the crisis toexplore their underlying intellectual grounds. The essays in this volume delve deeper into the cultural and intellectual foundations, philosophical ideas, political traditions, and economic movements that underlie the greatest financial crisis in nearly a century. Moving beyond traditional economic and political science approaches, these essays engage thinkers from Hannah Arendt to Max Weber and Adam Smith to Michel Foucault.With Arendt as a catalyst, the authors probe the philosophical as well as the cultural origins of the great recession. Orienting the volume is Arendt's argument that past financial crises and also totalitarianism are rooted, at least in part, in the tendency for capital to expand its reach globally without regard to political and moral borders or limits. That politics is made subservient to economics names a cultural transformation that, in the spirit of Arendt, guides these essays in making sense of our present world.Including articles, interviews, and commentary from leading scholars and business executives, this volume offers views that are as diverse as they are timely. By reaching beyond "how" the crisis happened to "why" the crisis happened, the authors re-imagine the recent financial crisis and thus provide fresh thinking about how to respond.
Comic Perspectives on Democracy and Freedom
Cynthia Willett
Comedy, from social ridicule to the unruly laughter of the carnival,
provides effective tools for reinforcing social patterns of domination as well as
weapons for emancipation. In Irony in the Age of Empire, Cynthia Willett asks: What
could embody liberation better than laughter? Why do the oppressed laugh? What
vision does the comic world prescribe? For Willett, the comic trumps standard
liberal accounts of freedom by drawing attention to bodies, affects, and intimate
relationships, topics which are usually neglected by political philosophy. Willett's
philosophical reflection on comedy issues a powerful challenge to standard
conceptions of freedom by proposing a new kind of freedom that is unapologetically
feminist, queer, and multiracial. This book provides a wide-ranging, original,
thoughtful, and expansive discussion of citizenship, social manners, and political
freedom in our world today.
Celebrations and Attacks
John Rodden
Irving Howe and the Critics is a selection of essays and reviews about the work of Irving Howe (1920–93), a vocal radical humanist and the most influential American socialist intellectual of his generation. Howe authored eighteen books, edited twenty-five more, wrote dozens of articles and reviews, and edited the magazine Dissent for forty years after founding it. His writings cover subjects ranging from U.S. labor to the vicissitudes of American communism and socialism to Yiddishkeit and contemporary politics. His book World of Our Fathers: The Journey of the East European Jews to America and the Life They Found and Made received the National Book Award for Nonfiction.
John Rodden has chosen essays and reviews that focus on Howe’s major works and on the disputes they generated. He features both Dissent contributors and those who have dissented from the Dissenters—on the Right as well as the Left. Rodden includes a few stern assessments of Howe from his less sympathetic critics, testifying not only to the range of response—from admiration to hostility—that his work received but also to his stature on the Left as a prime intellectual target of neoconservative fire.
Reflections on the Canadian Identity
G.B. Madison, Paul Fairfield and Ingrid Harris
Is There a Canadian Philosophy? addresses the themes of community, culture, national identity, and universal human rights, taking the Canadian example as its focus. The authors argue that nations compelled to cope with increasing demands for group recognition may do so in a broadly liberal spirit and without succumbing to the dangers associated with an illiberal, adversarial multiculturalism. They identify and describe a Canadian civic philosophy and attempt to show how this modus operandi of Canadian public life is capable of reconciling questions of collective identity and recognition with a commitment to individual rights and related principles of liberal democracy. They further argue that this philosophy can serve as a model for nations around the world faced with internal complexities and growing demands for recognition from populations more diverse than at any previous time in their histories.