Political Theory for Mortals

Political Theory for Mortals PDF Author: John E. Seery
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501718312
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Get Book

Book Description
Despite an abundance of violence occurring in political contexts, no liberal political theorist since Thomas Hobbes has talked directly and coherently about death. John E. Seery does. He contends that liberalism desperately needs a theoretical framework in which to discuss pressing matters of human mortality. Among the contemporary political issues that cry out for theoretical articulation, Seery suggests, are abortion politics, ethnic cleansing, suicide assistance, national reparations, environmental degradation, and capital punishment. Seery offers a new conception of social contract theory as a framework for confronting death issues. He urges us to look to an older tradition of descent into an underworld, wherein classic theorists consulted poetically with the dead and acquired from them political insight and direction.In this lively book, Seery excavates the infernal tradition by rereading the politics of death in Platonism, early Christianity, and contemporary feminism. Building on those traditions, he proposes a new, constructive image of death that can serve democratic theory productively. Reconsidered from the "land of the shades," social contractarian theory is sufficiently altered that, for example, a pro-life Christian and a pro-choice secularist might be able to strike common ground upon which to discuss abortion politics.

Political Theory for Mortals

Political Theory for Mortals PDF Author: John E. Seery
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501718312
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Get Book

Book Description
Despite an abundance of violence occurring in political contexts, no liberal political theorist since Thomas Hobbes has talked directly and coherently about death. John E. Seery does. He contends that liberalism desperately needs a theoretical framework in which to discuss pressing matters of human mortality. Among the contemporary political issues that cry out for theoretical articulation, Seery suggests, are abortion politics, ethnic cleansing, suicide assistance, national reparations, environmental degradation, and capital punishment. Seery offers a new conception of social contract theory as a framework for confronting death issues. He urges us to look to an older tradition of descent into an underworld, wherein classic theorists consulted poetically with the dead and acquired from them political insight and direction.In this lively book, Seery excavates the infernal tradition by rereading the politics of death in Platonism, early Christianity, and contemporary feminism. Building on those traditions, he proposes a new, constructive image of death that can serve democratic theory productively. Reconsidered from the "land of the shades," social contractarian theory is sufficiently altered that, for example, a pro-life Christian and a pro-choice secularist might be able to strike common ground upon which to discuss abortion politics.

Handbook of Political Theory

Handbook of Political Theory PDF Author: Gerald F Gaus
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 9780761967873
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 468

Get Book

Book Description
Containing state-of-the-art reviews of political theories, past and present, this edited collection offers a complete guide to all the main areas and fields of political and philosophical enquiry.

America Goes to College

America Goes to College PDF Author: John E. Seery
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791487520
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Get Book

Book Description
A rallying cry on behalf of a distinctly American institution of higher learning—the small liberal arts college—America Goes to College combines broad-based scholarship with personal narrative and reflection. In a highly entertaining manner, John E. Seery showcases the precarious successes of a well-rounded liberal arts college education, while at the same time signaling some of the dangers that loom on the horizon. Seery contends that the liberal arts are best pursued within the face-to-face interactive setting, characteristic of the small college classroom, as opposed to the large university lecture hall. Moreover and more provocatively, he identifies political theorists as the proper custodians and practitioners of the liberal arts tradition as it unfolds today. It is the unfettered freedom of the small liberal arts college, where vision and practice can actually coincide, that makes it the embodiment of the advantages of the American higher education system—a national treasure deserving of support.

Political Theory

Political Theory PDF Author: David Leopold
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199230080
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Get Book

Book Description
Political Theory: Methods and Approaches is one of the first books to analyze research methods in political theory and political philosophy. Drawing together a distinguished set of contributors, the book asks how political theory should be conducted today and examines the connections between political theory and a range of adjacent disciplines - including moral philosophy, the empirical social sciences, the history of political thought, the world of 'real' politics, critical social theory, and ideology.

Political Theory

Political Theory PDF Author: James L. Wiser
Publisher: Cengage Learning
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Get Book

Book Description
This gracefully written, intellectually rigorous book explores the major issues of political theory by presenting the perspectives of major theorists. It gives students necessary historical background while examining basic themes and assessing the validity of basic arguments. Written in a clear, direct style, it can be easily understood by students with little previous exposure to political science. Rather than simply presenting an abstract or formal discussion of the major issues of political theory, it examines how the issues were understood by specific political thinkers including Plato, Machiavelli, Locke, Hobbes, Marx, Dahl, Popper, Nozick. T.H. Green, and others. This is a useful thematic introduction to political theory that places theory in an interesting historical and intellectual context.

History of Political Thought

History of Political Thought PDF Author: Raymond Garfield Gettell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political science
Languages : en
Pages : 536

Get Book

Book Description


The Odyssey of Political Theory

The Odyssey of Political Theory PDF Author: Patrick J. Deneen
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 146164500X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Get Book

Book Description
This path-breaking and eloquent analysis of The Odyssey, and the way it has been interpreted by political philosophers throughout the centuries, has dramatic implications for the current state of political thought. This important book offers readers original insights into The Odyssey and it provides a new understanding of the classic works of Plato, Rousseau, Vico, Horkheimer, and Adorno. Through his analysis Patrick J. Deneen requires readers to rethink the issues that are truly at the heart of our contemporary 'Culture Wars,' and he encourages us to reassess our assumptions about the Western canon's virtues or viciousness. Deneen's penetrating exploration of Odysseus's and our own enduring battles between the dual temptations of homecoming and exploration, patriotism and cosmopolitanism, and relativism and universality provides an original perspective on contentious debates at the center of modern political theory and philosophy.

States Without Nations

States Without Nations PDF Author: Jacqueline Stevens
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231520212
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 479

Get Book

Book Description
As citizens, we hold certain truths to be self-evident: that the rights to own land, marry, inherit property, and especially to assume birthright citizenship should be guaranteed by the state. The laws promoting these rights appear not only to preserve our liberty but to guarantee society remains just. Yet considering how much violence and inequality results from these legal mandates, Jacqueline Stevens asks whether we might be making the wrong assumptions. Would a world without such laws be more just? Arguing that the core laws of the nation-state are more about a fear of death than a desire for freedom, Jacqueline Stevens imagines a world in which birthright citizenship, family inheritance, state-sanctioned marriage, and private land ownership are eliminated. Would chaos be the result? Drawing on political theory and history and incorporating contemporary social and economic data, she brilliantly critiques our sentimental attachments to birthright citizenship, inheritance, and marriage and highlights their harmful outcomes, including war, global apartheid, destitution, family misery, and environmental damage. It might be hard to imagine countries without the rules of membership and ownership that have come to define them, but as Stevens shows, conjuring new ways of reconciling our laws with the condition of mortality reveals the flaws of our present institutions and inspires hope for moving beyond them.

History of Political Theory: An Introduction

History of Political Theory: An Introduction PDF Author: George Klosko
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191612332
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 392

Get Book

Book Description
History of Political Theory: An Introduction is an engaging introduction to the main figures in the history of Western Political Theory and their most important works. Volume I traces the development of political theory "from the beginning" in ancient Greece through the Reformation. Main subjects examined include the Classical political theory of the Greek polis, the Hellenistic period, the rise of Christian political theory, political theory of the middle ages, and the Reformation. Major figures examined include Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Thomas, Marsilius of Padua, and Martin Luther. Throughout, the great theorists are closely examined in their historical contexts, with extensive quotations allowing them to speak for themselves. Central concepts employed in their works are carefully examined, with special attention to how these fit together to form coherent theories. The works of the great theorists are further considered in regard to how they bear on issues of contemporary concern, such as constitutionalism, natural law, and resistance to unjust authority. The result is not only an exploration of the great works of political theory but a demonstration of their continuing relevance.

Political Theory

Political Theory PDF Author: George Kateb
Publisher: New York : St. Martian's Press
ISBN:
Category : Political science
Languages : en
Pages : 126

Get Book

Book Description