Download or read book Agents of Change written by Ben Laurence and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2021-11-09 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An incisive argument for the relevance of political philosophy and its possibility of effecting change. The appeal of political philosophy is that it will answer questions about justice for the sake of political action. But contemporary political philosophy struggles to live up to this promise. Since the death of John Rawls, political philosophers have become absorbed in methodological debates, leading to an impasse between two unattractive tendencies: utopians argue that philosophy should focus uncompromisingly on abstract questions of justice, while pragmatists argue that we should concern ourselves only with local efforts to ameliorate injustice. Agents of Change shows a way forward. Ben Laurence argues that we can combine utopian justice and the pragmatic response to injustice in a political philosophy that unifies theory and practice in pursuit of change. Political philosophy, on this view, is not a purely normative theory disconnected from practice. Rather, political philosophy is itself a practiceÑan exercise of practical reason issuing in action. Laurence contends that this exercise begins in ordinary life with the confrontation with injustice. Philosophy draws ideas about justice from this encounter to be pursued through political action. Laurence shows that the task of political philosophy is not complete until it asks the question ÒWhat is to be done?Ó and deliberates actionable answers.
Download or read book Philosophy and Real Politics written by Raymond Geuss and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2024-06-25 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A trenchant critique of established ideas in political philosophy and a provocative call for change Many contemporary political thinkers are gripped by the belief that their task is to develop an ideal theory of rights or justice for guiding and judging political actions. But in Philosophy and Real Politics, Raymond Geuss argues that philosophers should first try to understand why real political actors behave as they actually do. Far from being applied ethics, politics is a skill that allows people to survive and pursue their goals. To understand politics is to understand the powers, motives, and concepts that people have and that shape how they deal with the problems they face in their particular historical situations. Philosophy and Real Politics both outlines a historically oriented, realistic political philosophy and criticizes liberal political philosophies based on abstract conceptions of rights and justice.
Download or read book Political Philosophy and Political Action written by Adam Burgos and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-12-12 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Political philosophers have long taken inspiration from political movements when crafting their theories, which they hoped would address the universal problems of democracy. Political Philosophy and Political Actioninvestigates the relationship between political practices of popular resistance and political theory. The text demonstrates how the lived experience on political resistance can help us to analyse and interpret theory, and also reveals how concrete resistance movements can challenge the ideals of political theory generally. It begins by examining the universal aspirations present within the contextual particularities of Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, and the Arab Spring. Political Philosophy and Political Actionthen turns to critical examination of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Karl Marx, John Dewey, and Jacques Rancière, using novel interpretations of their philosophies of equality and democracy to construct a conceptual framework. More specifically, the chapters show how we can analyze resistance movements that incorporate the imperative to resist inequality in the name of democracy. The result is a novel means of thinking about important issues in contemporary political philosophy, including pluralism, oppression and domination, and the purposes and meaning of politics.
Download or read book Political Action written by Michael Walzer and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2019-02-26 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Political theorist Michael Walzer's classic guide is a perfect introduction to social activism, including what-to-do advice for deciding which issues to take on, organizing, fundraising, and providing effective leadership Political Action is a how-to book for activists that was written at one of the darkest moments of the Nixon administration and remains no less timely and intelligent and useful today. Michael Walzer draws on his extensive engagement in the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s to lay out the practical steps necessary to keep movement politics alive both in victory and in defeat. What do people need to do when out of outrage or fear of looming disaster they come together to demand change? Should they focus on one or several issues? Should they form coalitions? What can and can’t be accomplished through electoral politics? How can movements operate democratically? What is effective leadership? Walzer addresses such questions with clarity, concision, wisdom, and wit in a book that everywhere insists not only on the centrality of movement politics to the health of democratic societies but on the deep satisfaction that is to be found there. Political Action is both an indispensable resource for activists and a lasting and inspiring summons to arms.
Download or read book What is Political Philosophy And Other Studies written by Leo Strauss and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1988-10-15 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "All political action has . . . in itself a directedness towards knowledge of the good: of the good life, or of the good society. For the good society is the complete political good. If this directedness becomes explicit, if men make it their explicit goal to acquire knowledge of the good life and of the good society, political philosophy emerges. . . . The theme of political philosophy is mankind's great objectives, freedom and government or empire—objectives which are capable of lifting all men beyond their poor selves. Political philosophy is that branch of philosophy which is closest to political life, to non-philosophic life, to human life."—From "What Is Political Philosophy?" What Is Political Philosophy?—a collection of ten essays and lectures and sixteen book reviews written between 1943 and 1957—contains some of Leo Strauss's most famous writings and some of his most explicit statements of the themes that made him famous. The title essay records Strauss's sole extended articulation of the meaning of political philosophy itself. Other essays discuss the relation of political philosophy to history, give an account of the political philosophy of the non-Christian Middle Ages and of classic European modernity, and present his theory of esoteric writing.
Download or read book Arendt on the Political written by David Arndt and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-24 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shows how Hannah Arendt opened up new ways of thinking about politics and a new approach to interpreting political history.
Download or read book Force and Freedom written by Arthur Ripstein and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2010-02-15 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this masterful work, both an illumination of Kant’s thought and an important contribution to contemporary legal and political theory, Arthur Ripstein gives a comprehensive yet accessible account of Kant’s political philosophy. Ripstein shows that Kant’s thought is organized around two central claims: first, that legal institutions are not simply responses to human limitations or circumstances; indeed the requirements of justice can be articulated without recourse to views about human inclinations and vulnerabilities. Second, Kant argues for a distinctive moral principle, which restricts the legitimate use of force to the creation of a system of equal freedom. Ripstein’s description of the unity and philosophical plausibility of this dimension of Kant’s thought will be a revelation to political and legal scholars. In addition to providing a clear and coherent statement of the most misunderstood of Kant’s ideas, Ripstein also shows that Kant’s views remain conceptually powerful and morally appealing today. Ripstein defends the idea of equal freedom by examining several substantive areas of law—private rights, constitutional law, police powers, and punishment—and by demonstrating the compelling advantages of the Kantian framework over competing approaches.
Download or read book The Political Thought of Hannah Arendt written by Michael G. Gottsegen and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1994-01-01 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It explicates Arendt's major works - The Human Condition, Between Past and Future, On Revolution, The Life of the Mind, and Lectures on Kant's Political Philosophy - and explores her contributions to democratic theory and to contemporary postmodern and neo-Kantian political philosophy.
Download or read book An Introduction to Social and Political Philosophy written by Richard Schmitt and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2009-06-16 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Social and political philosophy, unlike other fields and disciplines, involves conflict, disagreement, deliberation, and action. This text takes a new approach and understands philosophy not so much as a story of great thinkers or as a collection of philosophical positions but as a series of debates and disagreements in which students must participate. Adopting what may be called an 'active learning' method, Richard Schmitt, who has long taught social and political philosophy in the Ivy Leagues as well at state colleges, presents a range of problems and debates which engage the core question of freedom. Too often, students are bewildered, and then bored, by highly abstract philosophical questions because they are unable to connect those abstract issues to their own life experiences. This text immediately connects issues and experiences, and provides integrated, on-going questions to spark dialogue, whether in class settings or in the reader's own mind, and to help students form strong arguments with good reasons for their positions. In the course of examining different current controversies, the book develops theories of democracy, equality, the state, property, autonomy, and the role of morality in politics, all of which are standard for courses in social and political philosophy.
Download or read book Political Philosophy A Very Short Introduction written by David Miller and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2003-06-26 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book introduces readers to the concepts of political philosophy. It starts by explaining why the subject is important and how it tackles basic ethical questions such as 'how should we live together in society?' It looks at political authority, the reasons why we need politics at all, the limitations of politics, and whether there are areas of life that shouldn't be governed by politics. It explores the connections between political authority and justice, a constant theme in political philosophy, and the ways in which social justice can be used to regulate rather than destroy a market economy. David Miller discusses why nations are the natural units of government and whether the rise of multiculturalism and transnational co-operation will change this: will we ever see the formation of a world government? ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Download or read book Political Philosophy written by Adam Swift and published by Polity. This book was released on 2014 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing political philosophy out of the ivory tower and within the reach of all, this book provides us with the tools to cut through the complexity of modern politics.
Download or read book Hannah Arendt s Theory of Political Action written by Trevor Tchir and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-05-20 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents an account of Hannah Arendt’s performative and non-sovereign theory of freedom and political action, with special focus on action’s disclosure of the unique ‘who’ of each agent. It aims to illuminate Arendt’s critique of sovereign rule, totalitarianism, and world-alienation, her defense of a distinct political sphere for engaged citizen action and judgment, her conception of the ‘right to have rights,’ and her rejection of teleological philosophies of history. Arendt proposes that in modern, pluralistic, secular public spheres, no one metaphysical or religious idea can authoritatively validate political actions or opinions absolutely. At the same time, she sees action and thinking as revealing an inescapable existential illusion of a divine element in human beings, a notion represented well by the ‘daimon’ metaphor that appears in Arendt’s own work and in key works by Plato, Heidegger, Jaspers, and Kant, with which she engages. While providing a post-metaphysical theory of action and judgment, Arendt performs the fact that many of the legitimating concepts of contemporary secular politics retain a residual vocabulary of transcendence. This book will be of interest not only to Arendt scholars, but also to students of identity politics, the critique of sovereignty, international political theory, political theology, and the philosophy of history.
Download or read book At the Limits of Political Philosophy written by James V. Schall and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2010-04 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James V. Schall presents, in a convincing and articulate manner, the revelational contribution to political philosophy, particularly that which comes out of the Roman Catholic tradition.
Download or read book Conceptualizing Politics written by Furio Cerutti and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-04-21 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Politics is hugely complex. Some try to reduce its complexity by examining it through an ideological worldview, a one-size-fits-all prescriptive formula or a quantitative examination of as many 'facts' as possible. Yet politics cannot be adequately handled as if it were made of cells and particles: ideological views are oversimplifying and sometimes dangerous. Politics is not simply a moral matter, nor political philosophy a subdivision of moral philosophy. This book is devised as a basic conceptual lexicon for all those who want to understand what politics is, how it works and how it changes or fails to change. Key concepts such as power, conflict, legitimacy and order are clearly defined and their interplay in the state, interstate and global level explored. Principles such as liberty, equality, justice and solidarity are discussed in the context of the political choices confronting us. This compact and systematic introduction to the categories needed to grasp the fundamentals of politics will appeal to readers who want to gain a firmer grasp on the workings of politics, as well as to scholars and students of philosophy, political science and history.
Download or read book The Public and the Private in Aristotle s Political Philosophy written by Judith A. Swanson and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-15 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aristotle offers a conception of the private and its relationship to the public that suggests a remedy to the limitations of liberalism today, according to Judith A. Swanson. In this fresh and lucid interpretation of Aristotle's political philosophy, Swanson challenges the dominant view that he regards the private as a mere precondition to the public. She argues, rather, that for Aristotle private activity develops virtue and is thus essential both to individual freedom and happiness and to the well-being of the political order. Swanson presents an innovative reading of The Politics which revises our understanding of Aristotle's political economy and his views on women and the family, slavery, and the relation between friendship and civic solidarity. She examines the private activities Aristotle considers necessary to a complete human life—maintaining a household, transacting business, sustaining friendships, and philosophizing. Focusing on ways Aristotle's public invests in the private through law, rule, and education, she shows how the public can foster a morally and intellectually virtuous citizenry. In contrast to classical liberal theory, which presents privacy as a shield of rights protecting individuals from one another and from the state, for Aristotle a regime can attain self-sufficiency only by bringing about a dynamic equilibrium between the public and the private. The Public and the Private in Aristotle's Political Philosophy will be essential reading for scholars and students of political philosophy, political theory, classics, intellectual history, and the history of women.
Download or read book Philosophy Politics and Economics written by Gerald Gaus and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-11-16 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An updated and expanded edition of the classic introduction to PPE—philosophy, politics, and economics—coauthored by one of the field’s pioneers Philosophy, Politics, and Economics offers a complete introduction to the fundamental tools and concepts of analysis that PPE students need to study social and political issues. This fully updated and expanded edition examines the core methodologies of rational choice, strategic analysis, norms, and collective choice that serve as the bedrocks of political philosophy and the social sciences. The textbook is ideal for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and nonspecialists looking to familiarize themselves with PPE’s approaches. Starting with individual choice, the book develops an account of rationality to introduce readers to decision theory, utility theory, and concepts of welfare economics and consumer choice theory. It moves to strategic choice in game theory to explore such issues as bargaining theory, repeated games, and evolutionary game theory. The text also considers how social norms can be understood, observed, and measured. Concluding chapters address collective choice, social choice theory and democracy, and public choice theory’s connections to voters, representatives, and institutions. Rigorous and comprehensive, Philosophy, Politics, and Economics continues to be an essential text for this popular and burgeoning field. The only book that covers the entirety of PPE methods A rigorous, nontechnical introduction to decision theory, game theory, and positive political theory A philosophical introduction to rational choice theory in the social sciences
Download or read book Hegel s Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Politics written by Michael J. Thompson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-04-27 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The renaissance in Hegel scholarship over the past two decades has largely ignored or marginalized the metaphysical dimension of his thought, perhaps most vigorously when considering his social and political philosophy. Many scholars have consistently maintained that Hegel’s political philosophy must be reconstructed without the metaphysical structure that Hegel saw as his crowning philosophical achievement. This book brings together twelve original essays that explore the relation between Hegel’s metaphysics and his political, social, and practical philosophy. The essays seek to explore what normative insights and positions can be obtained from examining Hegel’s distinctive view of the metaphysical dimensions of political philosophy. His ideas about the good, the universal, freedom, rationality, objectivity, self-determination, and self-development can be seen in a new context and with renewed understanding once their relation to his metaphysical project is considered. Hegel’s Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Politics will be of great interest to scholars of Hegelian philosophy, German Idealism, nineteenth-century philosophy, political philosophy, and political theory.
