Political Vices

Political Vices PDF Author: Mark E. Button
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190274964
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
Historically speaking, our vices, like our virtues, have come in two basic forms: intellectual and moral. One of the main purposes of this book is to analyze a set of specifically political vices that have not been given sufficient attention within political theory but that nonetheless pose enduring challenges to the sustainability of free and equitable political relationships of various kinds. Political vices like hubris, willful blindness, and recalcitrance are persistent dispositions of character and conduct that imperil both the functioning of democratic institutions and the trust that a diverse citizenry has in the ability of those institutions to secure a just political order of equal moral standing, reciprocal freedom, and human dignity. Political vices embody a repudiation of the reciprocal conditions of politics and, as a consequence of this, they represent a standing challenge to the principles and values of the mixed political regime we call liberal-democracy. Mark Button shows how political vices not only carry out discrete forms of injustice but also facilitate the habituation in and indifference toward systemic forms of social and political injustice. They do so through excesses and deficiencies in human sensory and communicative capacities relating to voice (hubris), vision (moral blindness), and listening (recalcitrance). Drawing on a wide range of intellectual resources, including ancient Greek tragedy, social psychology, moral epistemology, and democratic theory, Political Vices gives new consideration to a list of "deadly vices" that contemporary political societies can neither ignore as a matter of personal "sin" nor publicly disregard as a matter of mere bad choice, and it provides a democratic account that outlines how citizens can best contend with our most troubling political vices without undermining core commitments to liberalism or pluralism.

Political Vices

Political Vices PDF Author: Mark E. Button
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190274964
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 249

Get Book

Book Description
Historically speaking, our vices, like our virtues, have come in two basic forms: intellectual and moral. One of the main purposes of this book is to analyze a set of specifically political vices that have not been given sufficient attention within political theory but that nonetheless pose enduring challenges to the sustainability of free and equitable political relationships of various kinds. Political vices like hubris, willful blindness, and recalcitrance are persistent dispositions of character and conduct that imperil both the functioning of democratic institutions and the trust that a diverse citizenry has in the ability of those institutions to secure a just political order of equal moral standing, reciprocal freedom, and human dignity. Political vices embody a repudiation of the reciprocal conditions of politics and, as a consequence of this, they represent a standing challenge to the principles and values of the mixed political regime we call liberal-democracy. Mark Button shows how political vices not only carry out discrete forms of injustice but also facilitate the habituation in and indifference toward systemic forms of social and political injustice. They do so through excesses and deficiencies in human sensory and communicative capacities relating to voice (hubris), vision (moral blindness), and listening (recalcitrance). Drawing on a wide range of intellectual resources, including ancient Greek tragedy, social psychology, moral epistemology, and democratic theory, Political Vices gives new consideration to a list of "deadly vices" that contemporary political societies can neither ignore as a matter of personal "sin" nor publicly disregard as a matter of mere bad choice, and it provides a democratic account that outlines how citizens can best contend with our most troubling political vices without undermining core commitments to liberalism or pluralism.

Democratic Representation in Multi-level Systems

Democratic Representation in Multi-level Systems PDF Author: Thomas Däubler
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429515561
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
This comprehensive volume studies the vices and virtues of regionalisation in comparative perspective, including countries such as Belgium, Germany, Spain, and the UK, and discusses conditions that might facilitate or hamper responsiveness in regional democracies. It follows the entire chain of democratic responsiveness, starting from the translation of citizen preferences into voting behaviour, up to patterns of decision-making and policy implementation. Many European democracies have experienced considerable decentralisation over the past few decades. This book explores the key virtues which may accompany this trend, such as regional-level political authorities performing better in understanding and implementing citizens’ preferences. It also examines how, on the other hand, decentralisation can come at a price, especially since the resulting multi-level structures may create several new obstacles to democratic representation, including information, responsibility and accountability problems. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal West European Politics.

Ordinary Vices

Ordinary Vices PDF Author: Judith N. Shklar
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674641754
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
The seven deadly sins of Christianity represent the abysses of character, whereas Shklar's "ordinary vices"--cruelty, hypocrisy, snobbery, betrayal, and misanthropy--are merely treacherous shoals, flawing our characters with mean-spiritedness and inhumanity. Shklar draws from a brilliant array of writers--Moliere and Dickens on hypocrisy, Jane Austen on snobbery, Shakespeare and Montesquieu on misanthropy, Hawthorne and Nietzsche on cruelty, Conrad and Faulkner on betrayal--to reveal the nature and effects of the vices. She examines their destructive effects, the ambiguities of the moral problems they pose to the liberal ethos, and their implications for government and citizens: liberalism is a difficult and challenging doctrine that demands a tolerance of contradiction, complexity, and the risks of freedom.

Private Virtues, Public Vices

Private Virtues, Public Vices PDF Author: Emma Saunders-Hastings
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022681615X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
Donations and Deference -- Equality and Philanthropic Relationships -- Plutocratic Philanthropy -- Philanthropic Paternalism -- Ordinary Donors and Democratic Philanthropy -- International Philanthropy.

Political Vices

Political Vices PDF Author: Mark E. Button
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780190274986
Category : Democracy
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Historically speaking, our vices, like our virtues, have come in two basic forms: intellectual and moral. One of the main purposes of this book is to analyse a set of specifically political vices that have not been given sufficient attention within political theory but that nonetheless pose enduring challenges to the sustainability of free and equitable political relationships of various kinds.

Vices of the Mind

Vices of the Mind PDF Author: Quassim Cassam
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198826907
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
Quassim Cassam introduces the idea of epistemic vices, character traits that get in the way of knowledge, such as closed-mindedness, intellectual arrogance, wishful thinking, and prejudice. Using examples from politics to illustrate the vices at work, he considers whether we are responsible for such failings, and what we can do about them.

The Education of Women and The Vices of Men

The Education of Women and The Vices of Men PDF Author:
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 0815651511
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
At the close of the nineteenth century, modern ideas of democracy and equality were slowly beginning to take hold in Iran. Exposed to European ideas about law, equality, and education, upper- and middle-class men and women increasingly questioned traditional ideas about the role of women and their place in society. In apparent response to this emerging independence of women, an anonymous author penned The Education of Women, a small booklet published in 1889. This guide, aimed at husbands as much as at wives, instructed women on how to behave toward their husbands, counseling them on proper dress, intimacy, and subservience. One woman, Bibi Khanom Astarabadi, took up the author’s challenge and wrote a refutation of the guide’s arguments. An outspoken mother of seven, Astarabadi established the first school for girls in Tehran and often advocated for the rights of women. In The Vices of Men, she details the flaws of men, offering a scathing diatribe on the nature of men’s behavior toward women. Astarabadi mixes the traditional florid style of the time with street Persian, slang words, and bawdy language. This new edition, the first to be translated into English, faithfully preserves the style and irreverent tone of the essays. The two texts, together with an introduction and afterword situating both within the customs, language, and social life of Iran, offer a rare candid dialogue between men and women in late nineteenth-century Persia.

Vices, Virtues, and Consequences

Vices, Virtues, and Consequences PDF Author: Peter Simpson
Publisher: CUA Press
ISBN: 9780813209937
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
Vices, Virtues, and Consequences offers a broad study of the basic and universal issues in ethics and politics, the issues of what the human good is and how to attain it and avoid its opposite. These questions have long been debated and are no less debated today. However, according to author Peter Phillips Simpson, within the mainstream of Anglo-American modern philosophy they have been debated too narrowly. This narrowness is one of our modern vices, and it does much to encourage other vices, in particular that of despair of universal and objective reason. The essays in this collection not only attack these vices, but also attempt to replace them with the contrary virtues. The volume begins with an overview of modern Anglo-American moral philosophy and critiques the work of contemporary thinkers--specifically Alasdair MacIntyre and John Rawls--and the work of historical thinkers such as Machiavelli, Kant, and Hobbes. The author then explores ancient and medieval sources, and applies their concepts to discussions of modern problems. The book closes with chapters that discuss the direct consequences of contemporary vices in both thought and action, in particular the vice of failing to educate the morals of citizens. Simpson rejects the contemporary liberal dogma that political authority should not be involved in the moral education of citizens. Violence in Northern Ireland and the crime of abortion are among the issues discussed. Peter Phillips Simpson is professor of philosophy and classics at the Graduate Center and the College of Staten Island, City University of New York. He is the author of numerous articles and books including The Politics of Aristotle, A Philosophical Commentary on the Politics of Aristotle, and Karol Wojtyla. "An important and significant contribution to the field. Simpson presents classical sources with a freshness and thoroughness not often seen."--Prof. John Hittinger, U.S. Air Force Academy "Simpson's application of his view to the current crisis in liberal culture is clear, consistent, and timely."--Prof. Nicholas Capaldi, University of Tulsa "It is a rare pleasure to read a book that combines the elegance and rigour of the best of analytic philosophy with the imaginative breadth and radical seriousness of some of its rivals." -- Margaret Atkins, Heythrop Journal

Virtues and Their Vices

Virtues and Their Vices PDF Author: Kevin Timpe
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019964554X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 522

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Book Description
A comprehensive philosophical treatment of the virtues and their competing vices. The first four sections focus on historical classes of virtue: the cardinal virtues, the capital vices and the corrective virtues, intellectual virtues, and the theological virtues. A final section discusses the role of virtue theory in a number of disciplines.

The Cambridge Companion to Civil Disobedience

The Cambridge Companion to Civil Disobedience PDF Author: William E. Scheuerman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108804845
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 457

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Book Description
The theory and practice of civil disobedience has once again taken on import, given recent events. Considering widespread dissatisfaction with normal political mechanisms, even in well-established liberal democracies, civil disobedience remains hugely important, as a growing number of individuals and groups pursue political action. 'Digital disobedients', Black Lives Matter protestors, Extinction Rebellion climate change activists, Hong Kong activists resisting the PRC's authoritarian clampdown...all have practiced civil disobedience. In this Companion, an interdisciplinary group of scholars reconsiders civil disobedience from many perspectives. Whether or not civil disobedience works, and what is at stake when protestors describe their acts as civil disobedience, is systematically examined, as are the legacies and impact of Henry Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King.