Rethinking Liberalism for the 21st Century

Rethinking Liberalism for the 21st Century PDF Author: Giunia Gatta
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351205374
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Rethinking Liberalism for the 21st Century offers an indispensable reexamination of the life, work, and interventions of a prominent liberal political theorist of the 20th century: Judith Shklar. Drawing on published and unpublished sources including Shklar’s correspondence, lecture notes, and other manuscripts, Giunia Gatta presents a fresh theoretical interpretation of Shklar’s liberalism as philosophically and politically radical. Beginning with a thorough reconstruction of Shklar’s life and her interest in political theory, Gatta turns her attention to examining the tension between Shklar’s critique of the term "modernity" and her passion for Enlightenment thinkers, including Rousseau and Hegel. In the second part of the book, Gatta roots Shklar’s liberalism of permanent minorities in her work in the history of political thought, and highlights this contribution as a fundamental recasting of liberalism as the political philosophy of outsiders. She makes a compelling argument for a liberalism of permanent minorities that refuses to stand on the ground of firm foundations and, instead, is oriented by complex understandings of cruelty and fear. Rethinking Liberalism for the 21st Century is a much-needed reorientation of traditional liberal policies, allowing for a more meaningful intervention in many contemporary debates. As such, it will be of interest to scholars of political theory, the history of political thought and ideas, philosophy, international relations, and political science in general.

Rethinking Liberalism for the 21st Century

Rethinking Liberalism for the 21st Century PDF Author: Giunia Gatta
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351205374
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Get Book Here

Book Description
Rethinking Liberalism for the 21st Century offers an indispensable reexamination of the life, work, and interventions of a prominent liberal political theorist of the 20th century: Judith Shklar. Drawing on published and unpublished sources including Shklar’s correspondence, lecture notes, and other manuscripts, Giunia Gatta presents a fresh theoretical interpretation of Shklar’s liberalism as philosophically and politically radical. Beginning with a thorough reconstruction of Shklar’s life and her interest in political theory, Gatta turns her attention to examining the tension between Shklar’s critique of the term "modernity" and her passion for Enlightenment thinkers, including Rousseau and Hegel. In the second part of the book, Gatta roots Shklar’s liberalism of permanent minorities in her work in the history of political thought, and highlights this contribution as a fundamental recasting of liberalism as the political philosophy of outsiders. She makes a compelling argument for a liberalism of permanent minorities that refuses to stand on the ground of firm foundations and, instead, is oriented by complex understandings of cruelty and fear. Rethinking Liberalism for the 21st Century is a much-needed reorientation of traditional liberal policies, allowing for a more meaningful intervention in many contemporary debates. As such, it will be of interest to scholars of political theory, the history of political thought and ideas, philosophy, international relations, and political science in general.

Rethinking Liberalism

Rethinking Liberalism PDF Author: Richard Bellamy
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0826477410
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
This book explores liberalism's past and present transformations and proposes a prospective future as a neo-republican democratic liberalism. Bellamy engages with theorists of liberalism from J. S. Mill, through T. H. Green, Guido De Ruggiero, Carl Schmitt and Joseph Schumpeter, to F. A. Hayek, John Rawls and Michael Walzer. He contends that the pluralism and complexity of modern societies have undermined liberalism's communitarian and ethical assumptions. Studies of the Poll Tax fiasco in Britain, and of the constitutional dilemmas posed by the European Union confirm the contemporary inadequacies of traditional conceptions of liberal democracy. Drawing on Max Weber, Bellamy advocates a return to a Machiavellian approach to politics to resolve the clashes resulting from competing values within complex situations. Unlike Weber however, he concentrates on the republican and democratic aspects of Machiavelli's thought. He proposes a republican strategy whereby the political dispersal of power constrains any ideal or interest from dominating another. Instead, everyone must seek mutually acceptable compromises. The essays in "Rethinking Liberalism" map a passage from the liberal democratic norms and forms characteristic of nineteenth-century nation states, to an agnostic, democratic liberal politics suitable for the transnational and plural societies of the new millennium.

Rethinking Liberty before Liberalism

Rethinking Liberty before Liberalism PDF Author: Hannah Dawson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108956246
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
Opens up new histories of freedom and republicanism by building on Quentin Skinner's ground-breaking Liberty before Liberalism nearly twenty five years after its initial publication. Leading historians and philosophers reveal the neo-Roman conception of liberty that Skinner unearthed as a normative and historical hermeneutic tool of enormous, ongoing power. The volume thinks with neo-Romanism to offer reinterpretations of individual thinkers, such as Montaigne, Grotius and Locke. It probes the role of neo-Roman liberty within hierarchies and structures beyond that of citizen and state – namely, gender, slavery, and democracy. Finally, it reassesses the relationships between neo-Romanism and other languages in the history of political thought: liberalism, conservatism, socialism, and the human rights tradition. The volume concludes with a major reappraisal by Skinner himself.

Rethinking R.G. Collingwood

Rethinking R.G. Collingwood PDF Author: Gary Browning
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230005756
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
Rethinking R.G. Collingwood reviews Collingwood's thought via his own rethinking of Hegel. It establishes the revisionary character of Collingwood's defence of liberal civilization in theory and practice. Collingwood is seen as avoiding the pitfalls of Hegel's teleological historicism by developing an open and contestable reading of the rationality of liberal civilization, which neither reduces practice to theory nor philosophy to history. The contemporary relevance of Collingwood's standpoint is demonstrated by comparing it with those of recent defenders and critics of liberalism Rawls, Lyotard and MacIntyre.

Rethinking Liberal Political Thought

Rethinking Liberal Political Thought PDF Author: Matthew R. Hagele
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ethics
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
ABSTRACT: Engaging with the many questions surrounding the proper relationship between religion and politics in a liberal democratic state, this dissertation focuses on the contribution that can be made by rethinking the tradition of liberal political thought. I explore the political vision of John Locke, which I argue grounds the possibility of incorporating religious forms of reasoning into the public sphere of democratic discourse. Distinguishing my comprehensive interpretation of Lockean liberalism from the views of significant twentieth- and twenty-first-century thinkers--whom I describe as either Rawlsian liberals, new traditionalists, non-liberal democrats, or non-Lockean liberal democrats--I discuss three conditions that are present in Locke, which make possible a form of democratic political participation that promotes the use of religious reasons in civil discourse. First, through his mature position on religious toleration, Locke constructs a civic environment in which citizens have the liberty to hold a diversity of religious beliefs and to make these beliefs public in religious practice. Second, according to Locke's views on moral epistemology, religious belief that is grounded in revelation can be entitled to supplement practical reason in order to give individuals fuller and clearer knowledge of, and motivation for obedience to, the moral law. Because Locke views political philosophy as a subset of moral philosophy, I extend the argument to conclude that Locke creates a role for the use of religious beliefs in one's determination of political matters. Third, I contend that Locke views religious communities as serving an expressive, political function by mediating individuals' interests to the larger sphere of public discourse. In this way, religious communities can be described as vehicles for citizenship. This claim for the political role of religious institutions moves beyond a mere allowance of religious reasoning in the public sphere to a specification of concrete ways in which this participation is to occur.

Reconsidering American Liberalism

Reconsidering American Liberalism PDF Author: James Young
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429966326
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
Forty years ago Louis Hartz surveyed American political thought in his classic The Liberal Tradition in America. He concluded that American politics was based on a broad liberal consensus made possible by a unique American historical experience, a thesis that seemed to minimize the role of political conflict.Today, with conflict on the rise and with much of liberalism in disarray, James P. Young revisits these questions to reevaluate Hartz's interpretation of American politics. Young's treatment of key movements in our history, especially Puritanism and republicanism's early contribution to the Revolution and the Constitution, demonstrates in the spirit of Dewey and others that the liberal tradition is richer and more complex than Hartz and most contemporary theorists have allowed.The breadth of Young's account is unrivaled. Reconsidering American Liberalism gives voice not just to Locke, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, Lincoln, and Dewey but also to Rawls, Shklar, Kateb, Wolin, and Walzer. In addition to broad discussions of all the major figures in over 300 years of political thought?with Lincoln looming particularly large?Young touches upon modern feminism and conservatism, multiculturalism, postmodernism, rights-based liberalism, and social democracy. Out of these contemporary materials Young synthesizes a new position, a smarter and tougher liberalism not just forged from historical materials but reshaped in the rough and tumble of contemporary thought and politics.This exceptionally timely study is both a powerful survey of the whole of U.S. political thought and a trenchant critique of contemporary political debates. At a time of acrimony and confusion in our national politics, Young enables us to see that salvaging a viable future depends upon our understanding how we have reached this point.Never without his own opinions, Young is scrupulously fair to the widest range of thinkers and marvelously clear in getting to the heart of their ideas. Although his book is a substantial contribution to political theory and the history of ideas, it is always accessible and lively enough for the informed general reader. It is essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of U.S. political thought or, indeed, about the future of the country itself.

Enduring Liberalism

Enduring Liberalism PDF Author: Robert Booth Fowler
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
"Enduring Liberalism pursues two objectives. One, it explores the political thought of public intellectuals and the general public since the 1960s. Two, it assesses contemporary and classic interpretations of American political thought in light of the study's findings."--BOOK JACKET.

Rethinking Positive and Negative Liberty

Rethinking Positive and Negative Liberty PDF Author: Maria Dimova-Cookson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429766203
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
This book argues that the distinction between positive and negative freedom remains highly pertinent today, despite having fallen out of fashion in the late twentieth century. It proposes a new reading of this distinction for the twenty-first century, building on the work of Constant, Green and Berlin who led the historical development of these ideas. The author defends the idea that freedom is a dynamic interaction between two inseparable, yet sometimes fundamentally, opposed positive and negative concepts – the yin and yang of freedom. Positive freedom is achieved when one succeeds in doing what is right, while negative freedom is achieved when one is able to advance one’s wellbeing. In an environment of culture wars, resurging populism and challenge to progressive liberal values, recognising the duality of freedom can help us better understand the political dilemmas we face and point the way forward. The book analyses the duality of freedom in more philosophical depth than previous studies and places it within the context of both historical and contemporary political thinking. It will be of interest to students and scholars of liberalism and political theory.

Revisiting Marx’s Critique of Liberalism

Revisiting Marx’s Critique of Liberalism PDF Author: Igor Shoikhedbrod
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030301958
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Revisiting Marx’s Critique of Liberalism offers a theoretical reconstruction of Karl Marx’s new materialist understanding of justice, legality, and rights through the vantage point of his widely invoked but generally misunderstood critique of liberalism. The book begins by reconstructing Marx’s conception of justice and rights through close textual interpretation and extrapolation. The central thesis of the book is, firstly, that Marx regards justice as an essential feature of any society, including the emancipated society of the future; and secondly, that standards of justice and right undergo transformation throughout history. The book then tracks the enduring legacy of Marx’s critique of liberal justice by examining how leading contemporary political theorists such as John Rawls, Jürgen Habermas, Axel Honneth, and Nancy Fraser have responded to Marx’s critique of liberalism in the face of global financial capitalism and the hollowing out of democratically-enacted law. The Marx that emerges from this book is therefore a thoroughly modern thinker whose insights shed valuable light on some of the most pressing challenges confronting liberal democracies today.

Rethinking Liberal Equality

Rethinking Liberal Equality PDF Author: Andrew Levine
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501738739
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 155

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Book Description
For more than a quarter century, academic political philosophy has been dominated by strains of liberal theory shaped decisively by John Rawls's seminal investigations of distributive justice and political legitimacy. By intervening sympathetically but critically into several ongoing debates initiated by Rawls's work, Andrew Levine suggests the possibility of a supra-liberal egalitarian political philosophy that incorporates the insights of recent developments in liberal theory, while reinvigorating the political vision of the historical Left. Taking current discussions about justice, equality and political neutrality as his points of departure, Levine suggests the need to rethink mainstream liberal understandings of equality and related notions. The rethinking he proposes lends support, ultimately, for a vision of ideal social and political arrangements of a kind intimated, though only barely sketched, in the work of Rousseau and Marx—a vision that, not long ago, was widely endorsed, but that nowadays is almost everywhere regarded as hopelessly utopian. In marked opposition to the reigning consensus view, Levine argues that, after compelling liberal concerns are taken into consideration, the vision of ideal social and political arrangements which motivated generations of progressive thinkers and political actors is anything but utopian and remains as timely today as it ever was. This vision, Levine insists, is indispensable for curing contemporary liberalism of its tendency to acquiesce in a status quo that is ultimately at odds with democratic, egalitarian and even liberal values.