Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Political Philosophy (political + philosophy)
Selected AbstractsINTRODUCTION: DOING CHINESE POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY WITHOUT "MAT VENDOR'S FALLACY"JOURNAL OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY, Issue 2 2007CHENYANG LI [source] AXIOLOGICAL RULES AND CHINESE POLITICAL PHILOSOPHYJOURNAL OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY, Issue 2 2007DUNHUA ZHAO [source] Harre's Social Philosophy and Political Philosophy: A Social Scientific CritiqueJOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 4 2009CARL RATNER In his article, "Saving Critical Realism,"Harre (2009) relates his revised philosophy of science to a social philosophy concerning the nature of society, and to a political philosophy regarding the nature of freedom and reform. I argue that his social philosophy and political philosophy rest upon an individualistic sense of society and freedom. I demonstrate that his individualism is factually and politically untenable. (I shall not comment on his philosophy of science, although the errors in his social and political philosophies make it suspect.) I counterpose an alternative social philosophy and political philosophy that are based on a structural model of society, freedom, and social change. My critique demonstrates how social science can adjudicate claims of structuralist vs. individualist social and political philosophy. It also argues that social science must constitute the basis for formulating political ideals of freedom and social organization if these are to be viable. [source] Teaching in the Spirit of Socrates: Remembering Fergal O'Connor OPNEW BLACKFRIARS, Issue 1009 2006Joseph Dunne (The late Father Fergal O'Connor OP was born near Causeway, Co. Kerry, on 6 December 1926 and died in Dublin on 29 September 2005. Having studied at St. Mary's Tallaght, he was ordained a priest in 1951. He took the STD at the Angelicum in Rome in 1955 and then went on to take PPE at Oxford, staying at Blackfriars from 1956 to 1959. Having taught for a short time at the Dominican House at Cork, he was assigned to St. Saviour's Priory in Dublin in 1961, where he lived for the rest of his life. From 1962 he taught political philosophy at University College Dublin, continuing beyond retirement in 1991 to teach a course on Plato until 1997. A social critic and activist, he was for many years a provocative panelist on Ireland's foremost television programme, ,The Late Late Show', and wrote regularly for newspapers and periodicals; also he founded and for several decades directed Sherrard House, a hostel for homeless girls in Dublin, and ALLY, an organisation supporting single mothers. But it was as an extraordinarily inspiring teacher, primarily in the university but also in many other informal settings, that he was perhaps most deeply influential. The following is a slightly amended version of an article first published in Questioning Ireland, Debates in Political Philosophy and Public Policy (eds, J. Dunne, A. Ingram and F.Litton, Dublin, IPA), a Festschrift for Father O'Connor written by former students and colleagues (including the theologian, Denys Turner, and the political philosopher, Philip Pettit) and published in 2000.) [source] Interpretation and Hobbes's Political PhilosophyPACIFIC PHILOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY, Issue 3-4 2001A. P. Martinich First page of article [source] Socratic Political Philosophy in Xenophon's,SymposiumAMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 1 2010Thomas L. Pangle This interpretative commentary recovers the largely overlooked significance of a work that illuminates, by portraying in a subtle comic drama, the new perspective on existence, the new way of life, that Socrates introduced in and through his founding of political philosophy. The famous "problem of Socrates" as a turning point of world history (Nietzsche) remains a cynosure of controversy and puzzlement. How did Socrates understand the character of, and the relation between, civic virtue and his own philosophic virtue? What is the meaning of Socratic "eros"? What kind of educative influence did Socrates intend to have, on and through his varied followers and associates? And what diverse effects did he actually have? Xenophon's,Symposium,,viewed in the context of his other writings, affords a playful, but thereby deeply revealing, perspective,from the viewpoint of a slightly skeptical intimate. [source] In Defense of Human Dignity: Essays for Our Times (Loyola Topics in Political Philosophy).THE HEYTHROP JOURNAL, Issue 2 2010Edited by Robert P. Kraynak, Glenn Tinder No abstract is available for this article. [source] Women managers in Poland and the United States: a comparative analysisINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 3 2003Richard T. Bliss This paper compares women managers in Poland and the United States in the context of their contrasting political and economic systems,the socialism of Central and Eastern Europe and the liberal democratic tradition of the West. We discuss the two political philosophies and their impact on gender roles and labour markets, and then compare this theory to the reality of Poland's transition. Finally, this background is used to analyse differences between Polish women managers and their American counterparts. [source] Machiavelli's Legacy: Domestic Politics and International ConflictINTERNATIONAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2005David Sobek Research examining the effect of regime type on conflict has focused on the democracy/autocracy continuum expounded in the political philosophies of liberal thinkers such as Kant and Schumpeter. While this concentration has yielded impressive results (democratic peace), it seems plausible that other conceptions of regime type may yield similar success. This paper examines the philosophy of Machiavelli and develops a measure of his "imperial regimes." These states, which can either be democratic or autocratic, should exhibit an increased propensity to initiate international conflict. Testing this contention in Renaissance Italy (1250,1494) and the modern international system (1920,1992), this paper finds strong empirical support. Machiavelli's views illuminate key differences between democracies and autocracies that have been previously overlooked. Thus, it deepens rather than replaces our conception of how domestic institutions affect international conflict. [source] Gender and Ethnicity in Bolivian Politics: Transformation or Paternalism?JOURNAL OF LATIN AMERICAN & CARIBBEAN ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 2 2000Susan Paulson Throughout Latin America public discourse and political programs dealing with gender and ethnicity have focused mainly on women and indigenous people, often in paternalistic efforts to help these "marginal groups." Bolivian constitutional reforms implemented between 1993 and 1997 challenge this traditional stance by promoting balanced participation in a nation constituted by multiple identities, yet ongoing processes triggered by these reforms testify to the tradition's stubborn endurance. In this article we ask what prevents institutions working in Bolivia from applying anthropological notions of gender and ethnicity as dynamic and interlocking cultural systems, and we question the distancing and antagonism that exists between those working with ethnicity- and those working with gender. Efforts to clarify these phenomena focus on the lack of articulation between ethnographic observations, political philosophies and development policies. [source] UNDERSTANDING DIVERSITY IN AFRICAN AMERICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT: COMPARING DU BOIS, WASHINGTON, GARVEY AND ELIJAH MUHAMMADPOLITICS & POLICY, Issue 2 2000Jaswant M. Sullivan This study provides a systematic and comparative treatment of four African-American political thinkers. Previous works on African-American political thought have been mostly biographical and idiographic treatments. This study uses the comparative method to systematically evaluate the political philosophies of W. E. B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, Elijah Muhammad, and Marcus Garvey. Although the study does not claim that the thinker's political thought is causally related to his activist position, it is expected that there is a logical connection between them. The study introduces a framework which combines two dimensions into four categories. The four thinkers are hypothesized to each fit a different category. The findings support the hypothesized categorization. [source] Tightening the net: children, community, and controlTHE BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, Issue 2 2001Adrian L. James ABSTRACT The recent move to revitalize social democracy in the UK under the New Labour government, explored by Giddens as ,the Third Way', embraces many of Etzioni's ideas on communitarianism. The principles that emerge from these political philosophies, such as the involvement of local communities in policy consultations and implementation, have largely been welcomed as a reflection of the aim of revitalizing civic society in the context of a range of social policies. It is argued, however, that for children, contrary to this general trend, many of these policies represent attempts to increase the social control of children. Their effect has been to restrict children's agency and their rights, rather than to increase their participation as citizens, and thus, in spite of the requirements of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, children continue to be marginalized. [source] The Tokugawa Bureaucracy and Urban Crises: A Revival of the Humanist Traditions of China and Japan in Ogyu Sorai's Political WritingsHISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 3 2007Yasuko Sato Ogyu Sorai (1666,1728) is a Japanese Confucian scholar who formulated his political philosophy, honoring the benevolent Way of the ancient Chinese Sages. It was his firm conviction that the task of government is to bring peace to the people. This humanistic concern was indeed central to classical Confucianism before the rise of a bureaucratic empire like the Qin (221,206 bce). How then is it possible to account for this lofty idealization of early Chinese Confucianism and its relevance to Tokugawa Japan (1600,1868)? This paper explores how Sorai's pursuit of Chinese antiquity was pitted against Tokvgawa bureaucratic control in the Edo metropolis and how he celebrated the centrality of great human beings to the promotion of popular welfare. In this view, the institution of soceity rests ultimately on political personalities who govern the land virtuously, and not on enforcement of order by punishments. It is worth noting, however, that Sorai did not articulate this humanist position merely as a Sinologist. In his mind, the Confucian values of humane rulership and interpersonal and social ethics were conflated with the samurai ideals prior to the establishment of the centralized Tokugawa power structure. He was well acquainted with the mental prowess of Japan's military lords and with their commitment to the primacy of human potentialities in both the military and civil arts. Theoretically, the ideal drawn from the way of antiquity is decentralized rule, as samurai rulers were originally lords of their fiefs. The construction of a human order in autonomous regions is what Sorai considered to be essential to realizing a society where the people can enjoy peace and tranquility. [source] Rethinking Care Theory: The Practice of Caring and the Obligation to CareHYPATIA, Issue 3 2005Daniel Engster Care theorists have made significant gains over the past twenty-five years in establishing caring as a viable moral and political concept. Nonetheless, the concept of caring remains underdeveloped as a basis for a moral and political philosophy, and there is no fully developed account of our moral obligation to care. This article advances thinking about caring by developing a definition of caring and a theory of obligation to care sufficient to ground a general moral and political philosophy. [source] Harre's Social Philosophy and Political Philosophy: A Social Scientific CritiqueJOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 4 2009CARL RATNER In his article, "Saving Critical Realism,"Harre (2009) relates his revised philosophy of science to a social philosophy concerning the nature of society, and to a political philosophy regarding the nature of freedom and reform. I argue that his social philosophy and political philosophy rest upon an individualistic sense of society and freedom. I demonstrate that his individualism is factually and politically untenable. (I shall not comment on his philosophy of science, although the errors in his social and political philosophies make it suspect.) I counterpose an alternative social philosophy and political philosophy that are based on a structural model of society, freedom, and social change. My critique demonstrates how social science can adjudicate claims of structuralist vs. individualist social and political philosophy. It also argues that social science must constitute the basis for formulating political ideals of freedom and social organization if these are to be viable. [source] Neutrality, Rebirth and Intergenerational JusticeJOURNAL OF APPLIED PHILOSOPHY, Issue 1 2002Tim Mulgan A basic feature of liberal political philosophy is its commitment to religious neut-rality. Contemporary philosophical discussion of intergenerational justice violates this com-mitment, as it proceeds on the basis of controversial metaphysical assumptions. The Contractualist notion of a power imbalance between generations and Derek Parfit's non-identity claims both presuppose that humans are not reborn. Yet belief in rebirth underlies Hindu and Buddhist traditions espoused by millions throughout the world. These traditions clearly constitute what John Rawls dubs "reasonable comprehensive doctrines", and therefore cannot be dismissed by political liberals. In many societies, including the USA, the UK, and India, belief in rebirth exists alongside other traditions, as well as modern Western views. A liberal theory for such societies must be impartial regarding rebirth, and the after-life in general. Two alternatives forms of liberal neutrality are sketched, based on Contractualism and Consequentialism. [source] Hegel, Human Rights, and ParticularismJOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY, Issue 4 2003Richard Mullender Hegel's political philosophy gives prominence to the theme that human beings have a need for recognition of those qualities, characteristics, and attributes that make them distinctive. Hegel thus speaks to the question whether human rights law should recognize and accommodate the nuances of individual make-up. Likewise, he speaks to the question whether human rights law should be applied in ways that are sensitive to the cultural contexts in which it operates. But Hegel's political philosophy evaluates norms and practices within particular cultures by reference to the higher-order and universal criterion of abstract right. In light of this point and the inadequacies of political philosophy that privileges local norms and practices, a third approach to the protection of human rights is canvassed. This approach prioritizes neither universal nor local norms. Its aim is to ensure that both human rights and the cultures in which they are applied are taken seriously. [source] Freedom as Justice: Hegel's Interpretation of Plato's RepublicMETAPHILOSOPHY, Issue 3 2000Robert Bruce Ware Hegel's interpretation of Plato's political thought provides the principal illustration of his metaphilosophy. However, Hegel has been criticized for imposing his own metaphilosophical agenda upon Plato's work, and for consequently overestimating its descriptive content while underestimating its prescriptively normative features. A reexamination of Hegel's metaphilosophy nevertheless reveals that he appreciated the broader significance of Plato's political philosophy within a conceptual framework that transcends the traditional dichotomy of description and prescription and that explores issues concerning the relation of theory and practice. [source] Teaching in the Spirit of Socrates: Remembering Fergal O'Connor OPNEW BLACKFRIARS, Issue 1009 2006Joseph Dunne (The late Father Fergal O'Connor OP was born near Causeway, Co. Kerry, on 6 December 1926 and died in Dublin on 29 September 2005. Having studied at St. Mary's Tallaght, he was ordained a priest in 1951. He took the STD at the Angelicum in Rome in 1955 and then went on to take PPE at Oxford, staying at Blackfriars from 1956 to 1959. Having taught for a short time at the Dominican House at Cork, he was assigned to St. Saviour's Priory in Dublin in 1961, where he lived for the rest of his life. From 1962 he taught political philosophy at University College Dublin, continuing beyond retirement in 1991 to teach a course on Plato until 1997. A social critic and activist, he was for many years a provocative panelist on Ireland's foremost television programme, ,The Late Late Show', and wrote regularly for newspapers and periodicals; also he founded and for several decades directed Sherrard House, a hostel for homeless girls in Dublin, and ALLY, an organisation supporting single mothers. But it was as an extraordinarily inspiring teacher, primarily in the university but also in many other informal settings, that he was perhaps most deeply influential. The following is a slightly amended version of an article first published in Questioning Ireland, Debates in Political Philosophy and Public Policy (eds, J. Dunne, A. Ingram and F.Litton, Dublin, IPA), a Festschrift for Father O'Connor written by former students and colleagues (including the theologian, Denys Turner, and the political philosopher, Philip Pettit) and published in 2000.) [source] Modus Vivendi: Liberalism for the Coming AgesNEW PERSPECTIVES QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2001John Gray Migration and the global media have mixed up all the old cultures into a hybrid brew. How will aging and shrinking societies that need immigrants to survive cope with this new culture? What political philosophy fits this new reality? [source] A New Reading of Werther as Goethe's Critique of RousseauORBIS LITERARUM, Issue 6 2001Astrida Orle Tantillo This article argues for a new ironic reading of Werther, a reading that highlights Goethe's early critique of Rousseau's political philosophy. The article first compares key passages in Werther to Rousseau's Discours sur l'Origine et les Fondements de l'Inégalitéparmi les hommes and Essai sur l'origine des langues to show how Goethe uses Rousseau's texts to create a critical distance between the reader and the sentimental narrative. The article then analyzes Goethe's farcical play, Der Triumph der Empfindsamkeit. While the play is generally read as a satiric criticism of the public's reaction to Werther, this article contends that the play is also a commentary on Rousseau's philosophy and Werther itself. [source] External Freedom in Kant's Rechtslehre: Political, Metaphysical,PHILOSOPHY AND PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2004JENNIFER K. ULEMAN External freedom is the central good protected in Kant's legal and political philosophy. But external freedom is perplexing, being at once freedom of spatio-temporal movement and a form of noumenal or ,intelligible'freedom. Moreover, it turns out that identifying impairments to external freedom nearly always involves recourse to an elaborated system of positive law, which seems to compromise external freedom's status as a prior, organizing good. Drawing heavily on Kant's understanding of the role of empirical ,anthropological'information in constructing a Doctrine of Right, or Rechtslehre, this essay offers an interpretation of external freedom that makes sense of its simultaneous spatio-temporality, dependence on positive law, intelligibility (or ,noumenality'), and a priority. The essay suggests that this account of Kantian external freedom has implications both for politics and for the metaphysics of everyday objects and institutions. [source] Confucianism and Ethics in the Western Philosophical Tradition II: A Comparative Analysis of PersonhoodPHILOSOPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 4 2010Mary I. Bockover This Philosophy Compass article continues the comparison between Confucian and mainstream Western views of personhood and their connection with ethics begun in Confucianism and Ethics in the Western Philosophical Tradition: Fundamental Concepts (CEWI), by focusing on the Western self conceived as an independent agent with moral and political rights. More specifically, the present article briefly accounts for how the more strictly and explicitly individualistic notion of self dominating Western philosophy has developed, leading up to a recent debate in modern Western rights theory between Herbert Fingarette and Henry Rosemont, Jr., two contemporary Western philosophers who are both steeped in Confucian thought as well as moral and political philosophy. This compares and contrasts Confucian principles with some basic to modern Western rights theory and the more individualistic view of self they entail. In the end, a new view of personhood and "free will" is offered that synthesizes insights from the Confucian treatment of persons as being essentially interdependent with the Western treatment of persons as being essentially independent. [Correction added after online publication 31 May 2010: Sentence changed.] [source] Hegel's Theory of FreedomPHILOSOPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 2 2007Craig Matarrese Hegel's theory of freedom is complex and sweeping, and while most interpreters of Hegel will readily agree that it is the centerpiece of his political philosophy, perhaps also of his social philosophy and philosophy of history, they will just as readily disagree about what exactly the theory claims. Such interpretive disagreements have fueled, in large part, the resurgence of interest in Hegelian philosophy over the last few decades. [source] Political Theory and Practical Public ReasoningPOLITICAL STUDIES, Issue 2 2010Albert Weale Political theory and political philosophy (used interchangeably in this article) have always played a role in public life. The argument pursued here is that this is not accidental. We cannot understand in an explanatory sense developments in public policy without understanding the structure of ideas that influence those developments, including the normative presuppositions at the core of those structures of ideas. However, we can pass from explanation in the narrow sense to justification and the evaluation of the merits of those ideas. The techniques of normative political theory are invaluable in this context of justification and evaluation. Two examples are given to illustrate this last claim. [source] Generational consciousness and retirement communitiesPOPULATION, SPACE AND PLACE (PREVIOUSLY:-INT JOURNAL OF POPULATION GEOGRAPHY), Issue 4 2007Kevin E. McHugh Abstract Time and collective historical experience loom large in the formation of generations. I argue that spatial proximity cements generational consciousness among seniors in Arizona retirement communities who identify themselves as members of the Second World War generation. The argument twins Karl Mannheim's social-historical conception of generations and Hannah Arendt's political philosophy which underscores the space of appearance in the public realm in identity formation. It is through congregating, interacting and conversing on a daily basis that seniors in retirement enclaves affirm and reaffirm who they are, both to themselves and outsiders. I draw upon a suite of Arizona case studies, 1988,2000, in revealing ,voices' for a slice of the Second World War generation. Discussions revolving around family, community and national life reveal beliefs and values coalescing around four themes: (1) splendid isolation; (2) dissolution of values; (3) absence of children; and (4) fraying the social compact. The space of appearance within retirement enclaves engenders a strong sense of collective identity and belonging in ageing and, simultaneously, leads to questions about implications and consequences of intergenerational separation. I conclude with a poignant multigenerational experience as suggestive of the potency of intergenerational contact and exchange. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Memory in the Construction of ConstitutionsRATIO JURIS, Issue 4 2002Michael Schäfer In connection with the contemporary debates in political philosophy between liberal, republican and proceduralist,deliberative views of democratic politics, I deal with the question of how the different concepts in these debates can be related to the particular national history, memories and expectations of a polity. I shall concentrate on one German example of the relationship between constitutionalism and democracy, in order to show that political philosophy must pay more attention to the different shared practices and understandings within each liberal society. [source] Socratic Political Philosophy in Xenophon's,SymposiumAMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 1 2010Thomas L. Pangle This interpretative commentary recovers the largely overlooked significance of a work that illuminates, by portraying in a subtle comic drama, the new perspective on existence, the new way of life, that Socrates introduced in and through his founding of political philosophy. The famous "problem of Socrates" as a turning point of world history (Nietzsche) remains a cynosure of controversy and puzzlement. How did Socrates understand the character of, and the relation between, civic virtue and his own philosophic virtue? What is the meaning of Socratic "eros"? What kind of educative influence did Socrates intend to have, on and through his varied followers and associates? And what diverse effects did he actually have? Xenophon's,Symposium,,viewed in the context of his other writings, affords a playful, but thereby deeply revealing, perspective,from the viewpoint of a slightly skeptical intimate. [source] WITHOUT CONSENT: PRINCIPLES OF JUSTIFIED ACQUISITION AND DUTY-IMPOSING POWERSTHE PHILOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY, Issue 237 2009Hugh Breakey A controversy in political philosophy and applied ethics concerns the validity of duty-imposing powers, that is, rights entitling one person to impose new duties on others without their consent. Many philosophers have criticized as unplausible any such moral right, in particular that of appropriating private property unilaterally. Some, finding duty-imposing powers weird, unfamiliar or baseless, have argued that principles of justified acquisition should be rejected; others have required them to satisfy exacting criteria. I investigate the many ways in which we regularly impose duties on one another without prior consent. I show that doing so is not weird, and I offer criteria which demarcate the reasonable from the worrisome aspects of duty-imposing powers. [source] II,Comment on Munoz -Dardé's,Liberty's Chains'ARISTOTELIAN SOCIETY SUPPLEMENTARY VOLUME, Issue 1 2009Niko Kolodny Munoz-Dardé (2009) argues that a social contract theory must meet Rousseau's ,liberty condition': that, after the social contract, each ,nevertheless obeys only himself and remains as free as before'. She claims that Rousseau's social contract does not meet this condition, for reasons that suggest that no other social contract theory could. She concludes that political philosophy should turn away from social contract theory's preoccupation with authority and obedience, and focus instead on what she calls the ,legitimacy' of social arrangements. I raise questions about each of these claims. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||