Is Political Philosophy Impossible?

Is Political Philosophy Impossible? PDF Author: Jonathan Floyd
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108508936
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
Political philosophy seems both impossible to do and impossible to avoid. Impossible to do, because we cannot agree on a single set of political principles. Impossible to avoid, because we're always living with some kind of political system, and thus some set of principles. So, if we can't do the philosophy, but can't escape the politics, what are we to do? Jonathan Floyd argues that the answer lies in political philosophy's deepest methodological commitments. First, he shows how political philosophy is practiced as a kind of 'thinking about thinking'. Second, he unpicks the different types of thought we think about, such as considered judgements, or intuitive responses to moral dilemmas, and assesses whether any are fit for purpose. Third, he offers an alternative approach - 'normative behaviourism' - which holds that rather than studying our thinking, we should study our behaviour. Perhaps, just sometimes, actions speak louder than thoughts.

Is Political Philosophy Impossible?

Is Political Philosophy Impossible? PDF Author: Jonathan Floyd
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108508936
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 291

Get Book

Book Description
Political philosophy seems both impossible to do and impossible to avoid. Impossible to do, because we cannot agree on a single set of political principles. Impossible to avoid, because we're always living with some kind of political system, and thus some set of principles. So, if we can't do the philosophy, but can't escape the politics, what are we to do? Jonathan Floyd argues that the answer lies in political philosophy's deepest methodological commitments. First, he shows how political philosophy is practiced as a kind of 'thinking about thinking'. Second, he unpicks the different types of thought we think about, such as considered judgements, or intuitive responses to moral dilemmas, and assesses whether any are fit for purpose. Third, he offers an alternative approach - 'normative behaviourism' - which holds that rather than studying our thinking, we should study our behaviour. Perhaps, just sometimes, actions speak louder than thoughts.

Is Political Philosophy Impossible?

Is Political Philosophy Impossible? PDF Author: Jonathan Floyd
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107086051
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
A major new statement on how we do, and we ought to do, political philosophy.

What's the Point of Political Philosophy?

What's the Point of Political Philosophy? PDF Author: Jonathan Floyd
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509524223
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 98

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Book Description
Idiots burn books for the same reason philosophers write them – they matter. But why exactly do political philosophy books matter, not to mention the hundreds of articles published every year? In part because they are interesting, but also because they are influential. They are mind-altering and, in turn, world-altering. Political philosophers write their books for the same reason political revolutionaries read them – they change the world. In this short and original book, Jonathan Floyd explains three things: what political philosophy is, how you can do it, and why you might want to. Accessibly written for those coming to the subject for the first time, it is also a must-read for scholars whose research takes in the nature, methods, and purposes of their field. It is also a must-burn for anyone who dreams of a dumber, thicker, less enlightened world.

A Politics of Impossible Difference

A Politics of Impossible Difference PDF Author: Penelope Deutscher
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501723731
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
The influential philosopher and theorist Luce Irigaray has been faulted for giving more importance to sexual difference than to race and multiculturalism. Penelope Deutscher's eagerly awaited book, the first to focus on the scholar's controversial later works, addresses this charge. Through a learned critique of these lesser-known writings, the book examines Irigaray's claim that the politics of feminism and multiculturalism are intrinsically linked. The volume also serves as a clear and comprehensive introduction to her entire corpus.In her recent works, Irigaray promotes sexual difference as the philosophical basis for legal, political, and linguistic reform. Deutscher explores this approach and in particular Irigaray's view that the very notion of difference is culturally "impossible." Taking this concept of impossibility into consideration, Deutscher evaluates Irigaray's contributions to contemporary debates about the politics of identity, recognition, diversity, and multiculturalism. In a balanced discussion, she considers the philosopher's work from the perspective of fellow critics including Michéle Le Doeuff, Drucilla Cornell, Jacques Derrida, Judith Butler, and Charles Taylor.

The Impossible State

The Impossible State PDF Author: Wael B. Hallaq
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231530862
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Wael B. Hallaq boldly argues that the "Islamic state," judged by any standard definition of what the modern state represents, is both impossible and inherently self-contradictory. Comparing the legal, political, moral, and constitutional histories of premodern Islam and Euro-America, he finds the adoption and practice of the modern state to be highly problematic for modern Muslims. He also critiques more expansively modernity's moral predicament, which renders impossible any project resting solely on ethical foundations. The modern state not only suffers from serious legal, political, and constitutional issues, Hallaq argues, but also, by its very nature, fashions a subject inconsistent with what it means to be, or to live as, a Muslim. By Islamic standards, the state's technologies of the self are severely lacking in moral substance, and today's Islamic state, as Hallaq shows, has done little to advance an acceptable form of genuine Shari'a governance. The Islamists' constitutional battles in Egypt and Pakistan, the Islamic legal and political failures of the Iranian Revolution, and similar disappointments underscore this fact. Nevertheless, the state remains the favored template of the Islamists and the ulama (Muslim clergymen). Providing Muslims with a path toward realizing the good life, Hallaq turns to the rich moral resources of Islamic history. Along the way, he proves political and other "crises of Islam" are not unique to the Islamic world nor to the Muslim religion. These crises are integral to the modern condition of both East and West, and by acknowledging these parallels, Muslims can engage more productively with their Western counterparts.

This Is Political Philosophy

This Is Political Philosophy PDF Author: Alex Tuckness
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118766008
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
This is Political Philosophy is an accessible and well-balanced introduction to the main issues in political philosophy written by an author team from the fields of both philosophy and politics. This text connects issues at the core of political philosophy with current, live debates in policy, politics, and law and addresses different ideals of political organization, such as democracy, liberty, equality, justice, and happiness. Written with great clarity, This is Political Philosophy is accessible and engaging to those who have little or no prior knowledge of political philosophy and is supported with supplemental pedagogical and instructor material on the This Is Philosophy series site. Available at https://www.wiley.com/en-us/thisisphilosophy/thisispoliticalphilosophyanintroduction

Lectures on the History of Moral and Political Philosophy

Lectures on the History of Moral and Political Philosophy PDF Author: Jonathan Wolff
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691149003
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
Previously unpublished writings from one of the most important political philosophers of recent times G. A. Cohen was one of the leading political philosophers of recent times. He first came to wide attention in 1978 with the prize-winning book Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence. In subsequent decades his published writings largely turned away from the history of philosophy, focusing instead on equality, freedom, and justice. However, throughout his career he regularly lectured on a wide range of moral and political philosophers of the past. This volume collects these previously unpublished lectures. Starting with a chapter centered on Plato, but also discussing the pre-Socratics as well as Aristotle, the book moves to social contract theory as discussed by Hobbes, Locke, and Hume, and then continues with chapters on Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche. The book also contains some previously published but uncollected papers on Marx, Hobbes, and Kant, among other figures. The collection concludes with a memoir of Cohen written by the volume editor, Jonathan Wolff, who was a student of Cohen's. A hallmark of the lectures is Cohen's engagement with the thinkers he discusses. Rather than simply trying to render their thought accessible to the modern reader, he tests whether their arguments and positions are clear, sound, and free from contradiction. Throughout, he homes in on central issues and provides fresh approaches to the philosophers he examines. Ultimately, these lectures teach us not only about some of the great thinkers in the history of moral and political philosophy, but also about one of the great thinkers of our time: Cohen himself.

Thinking the Impossible

Thinking the Impossible PDF Author: Gary Gutting
Publisher: Oxford University Press (UK)
ISBN: 0199674671
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Gary Gutting tells the story of the remarkable flourishing of philosophy in France in the last four decades of the 20th century. He examines what it was to 'do philosophy', what this achieved, and how it differs from the Anglophone tradition. His key theme is that French philosophy in this period was mostly concerned with thinking the impossible.

The Political Philosophy of James Madison

The Political Philosophy of James Madison PDF Author: Garrett Ward Sheldon
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801871061
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Tracing the history of Madison's thought to his early education in Protestant theology, Sheldon argues that it was a fear of the potential "tyranny of the majority" over individual rights, along with a firmly Calvinist suspicion of the motives of sinful men, that led him to support a constitution creating a strong central government with power over state laws. In this way, Madison aimed to protect individual liberties and provide checks to "spiteful" human interests and selfish parochial prejudices.

The Political is Political

The Political is Political PDF Author: Lorna Finlayson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1783482885
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
This book is a critical exposé of the ways in which mainstream political philosophy silences dissent.