Philosophy in a Time of Lost Spirit

Philosophy in a Time of Lost Spirit PDF Author: Ronald Beiner
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 9780802080677
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
In this collection of his essays and reviews, Ronald Beiner probes the boundaries of our social world and develops his own intellectual challenge to liberalism in a critical review of contemporary thinkers.

Philosophy in a Time of Lost Spirit

Philosophy in a Time of Lost Spirit PDF Author: Ronald Beiner
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 9780802080677
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Get Book

Book Description
In this collection of his essays and reviews, Ronald Beiner probes the boundaries of our social world and develops his own intellectual challenge to liberalism in a critical review of contemporary thinkers.

Philosophy in a Time of Lost Spirit

Philosophy in a Time of Lost Spirit PDF Author: Ronald Beiner
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780802042101
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
In the last two centuries, our world would have been a safer place if philosophers such as Rousseau, Marx, and Nietzsche had not given intellectual encouragement to the radical ideologies of Jacobins, Stalinists, and fascists. Maybe the world would have been better off, from the standpoint of sound practice, if philosophers had engaged in only modest, decent theory, as did John Stuart Mill. Yet, as Ronald Beiner contends, the point of theory is not to think safe thoughts; the point is to open intellectual horizons. In Philosophy in a Time of Lost Spirit, Beiner reflects on the dualism of theory and practice. The purpose of the theorist is not to offer sensible guidance on the conduct of social life but to test the boundaries of our vision of social order. Whereas the liberal citizen should embody the practical virtues of prudence and moderation, the theorist should be radical, probing, and immoderate. Looking back at the liberal-communitarian debate of the 1980s, Beiner recognizes that the antidote to our spiritless times lies neither in the embrace of community over individualism nor of individualism over community: both individual and community need to be submitted to radical questioning. It is by exposing ourselves to the challenge of fearless thinking encountered at the philosophical extremities that we are most likely to understand our own world at a deeper level. In this collection of essays and reviews, Ronald Beiner helps us to think critically about the thought-worlds of our foremost contemporary thinkers, including Hannah Arendt, Allan Bloom, Michel Foucault, Hans-Georg Gadamer, J¦rgen Habermas, Will Kymlicka, Christopher Lasch, Richard Rorty, Judith Shklar, Leo Strauss, Charles Taylor, and Michael Walzer.

A Time of Lost Gods

A Time of Lost Gods PDF Author: Emily Ng
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520972635
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 223

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Book Description
Traversing visible and invisible realms, A Time of Lost Gods attends to profound rereadings of politics, religion, and madness in the cosmic accounts of spirit mediumship. Drawing on research across a temple, a psychiatric unit, and the home altars of spirit mediums in a rural county of China’s Central Plain, it asks: What ghostly forms emerge after the death of Mao and the so-called end of history? The story of religion in China since the market reforms of the late 1970s is often told through its destruction under Mao and relative flourishing thereafter. Here, those who engage in mediumship offer a different history of the present. They approach Mao’s reign not simply as an earthly secular rule, but an exceptional interval of divine sovereignty, after which the cosmos collapsed into chaos. Caught between a fading era and an ever-receding horizon, those “left behind” by labor outmigration refigure the evacuated hometown as an ethical-spiritual center to come, amidst a proliferation of madness-inducing spirits. Following pronouncements of China’s rise, and in the wake of what Chinese intellectuals termed semicolonialism, the stories here tell of spirit mediums, patients, and psychiatrists caught in a shared dilemma, in a time when gods have lost their way.

Encyclopedia of Democratic Thought

Encyclopedia of Democratic Thought PDF Author: Paul Barry Clarke
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136908560
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 768

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Book Description
Containing almost 200 entries from 'accountability' to the 'Westminster model' the Encyclopedia of Democratic Thought explores all the ideas that matter to democracy past, present and future. It is destined to become the first port-of-call for all students, teachers and researchers of political science interested in democratic ideas, democratic practice, and the quality of democratic governance. The Encyclopedia provides extensive coverage of all the key concepts of democratic thought written by a stellar team of distinguished international contributors. The Encyclopedia draws on every tradition of democratic thought, as well as developing new thinking, in order to provide full coverage of the key democratic concepts and engage with their practical implications for the conduct of democratic politics in the world today. In this way, it brings every kind of democratic thinking to bear on the challenges facing contemporary democracies and on the possibilities of the democratic future. The Encyclopedia is global in scope and responds in detail to the democratic revolution of recent decades. Referring both to the established democratic states of Western Europe, North America and Australasia, and to the recent democracies of Latin America, Eastern and Central Europe, Africa and Asia, classical democratic concerns are related to new democracies, and to important changes in the older democracies. Supplemented by full bibliographical information, extensive cross-referencing and suggestions for further reading, the Encyclopedia of Democratic Thought is a unique work of reference combining the expertise of many of the world's leading political scientists, political sociologists and political philosophers. It will be welcomed as an essential resource for both teaching and for independent study, and as a solid starting point both for further research and wider exploration.

Political Philosophy

Political Philosophy PDF Author: Ronald Beiner
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139993402
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
What is political philosophy? Ronald Beiner makes the case that it is centrally defined by supremely ambitious reflection on the ends of life. We pursue this reflection by exposing ourselves to, and participating in, a perennial dialogue among epic theorists who articulate grand visions of what constitutes the authentic good for human beings. Who are these epic theorists, and what are their strengths and weaknesses? Beiner selects a dozen leading candidates: Arendt, Oakeshott, Strauss, Löwith, Voegelin, Weil, Gadamer, Habermas, Foucault, MacIntyre, Rawls, and Rorty. In each case, he shows both why the political philosophies continue to be intellectually compelling and why they are problematic or can be challenged in various ways. In this sense, Political Philosophy attempts to draw up a balance sheet for political philosophy in the twentieth century, by identifying a canon of towering contributions and reviewing the extent to which they fulfil their intellectual aspirations.

Political Philosophy in the Twentieth Century

Political Philosophy in the Twentieth Century PDF Author: Catherine H. Zuckert
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139502972
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
This book demonstrates the rich diversity and depth of political philosophy in the twentieth century. Catherine H. Zuckert has compiled a collection of essays recounting the lives of political theorists, connecting each biography with the theorist's life work and explaining the significance of the contribution to modern political thought. The essays are organized to highlight the major political alternatives and approaches. Beginning with essays on John Dewey, Carl Schmitt and Antonio Gramsci, representing the three main political alternatives - liberal, fascist and communist - at mid-century, the book proceeds to consider the lives and works of émigrés such as Hannah Arendt, Eric Voegelin, and Leo Strauss, who brought a continental perspective to the United States after World War II. The second half of the collection contains essays on recent defenders of liberalism, such as Friedrich Hayek, Isaiah Berlin and John Rawls and liberalism's many critics, including Michel Foucault, Jürgen Habermas and Alasdair MacIntyre.

Social and Political Philosophy

Social and Political Philosophy PDF Author: John Philip Christman
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 0415217989
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
This accessible and user-friendly text offers a broad survey of some of the fundamental philosophical questions concerning social and political relations in modern society.

The Laws of the Spirit World

The Laws of the Spirit World PDF Author: Khorshed Bhavnagri
Publisher: Jaico Publishing House
ISBN: 817992985X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
WITH A BRAND NEW LOOK! ON FEBRUARY 22, 1980, KHORSHED AND RUMI BHAVNAGRI’S WORLD WAS SHATTERED. ONE MONTH LATER, A NEW ONE OPENED. Khorshed and Rumi Bhavnagri lost their sons, Vispi and Ratoo, in a tragic car crash. With both their sons gone, the couple felt they would not survive for long. They had lost all faith in God until a miraculous message from the Spirit World gave them hope and sent them on an incredible journey.

Reflections on Rawls

Reflections on Rawls PDF Author: Shaun P. Young
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN: 9780754661283
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
The late John Rawls was one of the most inspiring, provocative and influential political philosophers of the twentieth century. In this collection a panel of distinguished political philosophers critically explore the intellectual legacy of Rawls. The essays herein engage Rawls's political theorizing from his earliest published writings in the 1950s to his final publication in 2001, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement and explore a diversity of issues related to his arguments, such as the attractiveness of his methodology/methodologies, and the normative coherence and empirical validity of his claims. In turn, the effectiveness both of his arguments and those of various supporters and critics are evaluated from the perspective of a variety of analytical approaches, including cosmopolitanism, communitarianism, perfectionism, liberalism, and legal theory.This book is an edifying and engaging dialogue with ideas and arguments that have provided the theoretical framework for much of contemporary political philosophy, and a thoughtful assessment of their continuing significance and place within the pantheon of political philosophy.

Tempered Strength

Tempered Strength PDF Author: Ethan M. Fishman
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739104033
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Moral leadership matters. As world politics enters a new and dangerous era, judgment, constancy, moral purpose, and a willingness to overcome partisan politicking are essential for America's leaders. Tempered Strength finds the alternative standard of leadership that Americans are seeking in the classical philosophy of prudence. Ethan Fishman's new work brings together leading American political scientists--including Ronald Beiner, Kenneth L. Deutsch, and George Anastaplo--to discuss the evolution of a standard of prudential leadership both reasonable in nature and practical in scope. Section One studies the meaning of prudence and its evolution in the history of political science from Aristotelian phronesis to Xenophon, Thomas Aquinas, Edmund Burke, and Michael Oakeshott. Section Two demonstrates how the theory of prudential leadership can be applied to practical political issues.