Meditations on Modern Political Thought
Author: Jean Bethke Elshtain
Publisher: Penn State Press
Published: 2010-11-01
Total Pages: 145
ISBN-13: 0271044551
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Roman Political Thought and the Modern Theoretical Imagination
Author: Dean Hammer
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Published: 2014-10-22
Total Pages: 373
ISBN-13: 0806185686
DOWNLOAD EBOOKLinks modern political theorists with the Romans who inspired them Roman contributions to political theory have been acknowledged primarily in the province of law and administration. Even with a growing interest among classicists in Roman political thought, most political theorists view it as merely derivative of Greek philosophy. Focusing on the works of key Roman thinkers, Dean Hammer recasts the legacy of their political thought, examining their imaginative vision of a vulnerable political world and the relationship of the individual to this realm. By bringing modern political theorists into conversation with the Romans who inspired them—Arendt with Cicero, Machiavelli with Livy, Montesquieu with Tacitus, Foucault with Seneca—the author shows how both ancient Roman and modern European thinkers seek to recover an attachment to the political world that we actually inhabit, rather than to a utopia—a “perfect nowhere” outside of the existing order. Brimming with fresh interpretations of both ancient and modern theorists, this book offers provocative reading for classicists, political scientists, and anyone interested in political theory and philosophy. It is also a timely meditation on the hidden ways in which democracy can give way to despotism when the animating spirit of politics succumbs to resignation, cynicism, and fear.
Timely Meditations
Author: Leslie Paul Thiele
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2014-07-14
Total Pages: 276
ISBN-13: 1400864003
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFocusing on the concept of freedom, Leslie Paul Thiele makes Heidegger's philosophical works speak directly to politics in a postmodern world. Neither excusing Heidegger for his political sins nor ignoring their lesson, Thiele nonetheless refrains from polemic in order creatively to engage one of the greatest philosophers of our time. The product of this engagement is a vindication of a democratic and ecological politics firmly grounded in philosophic inquiry. Using Heidegger's understanding of freedom as a point of departure, Timely Meditations lays out the philosophic and political nature and potential of freedom in thought, speech, and deed. This disclosive freedom is contrasted to both modern (positive and negative) and postmodern (Nietzschean and Foucaultian) variations. The result is an original and provocative study that challenges our present understanding of liberty while underlining dangerous collusion with the contemporary forces of technology. Timely Meditations marks an increasingly rare achievement today. For unlike many theorists who attempt to steer a course into the world of postmodern politics, Thiele does so without forsaking philosophic foundations and without abandoning practical hopes and tasks for rhetorical diversions. Originally published in 1995. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Descartes and His Contemporaries
Author: Roger Ariew
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 1995-10-15
Total Pages: 280
ISBN-13: 9780226026299
DOWNLOAD EBOOKBefore publishing his landmark Meditations in 1641, Rene Descartes sent his manuscript to many leading thinkers to solicit their objections to his arguments. He included these objections, along with his own detailed replies, as part of the first edition. This unusual strategy gave Descartes a chance to address criticisms in advance and to demonstrate his willingness to consider diverse viewpoints—critical in an age when radical ideas could result in condemnation by church and state, or even death. Descartes and his Contemporaries recreates the tumultuous intellectual community of seventeenth-century Europe and provides a detailed, modern analysis of the Meditations in its historical context. The book's chapters examine the arguments and positions of each of the objectors—Hobbes, Gassendi, Arnauld, Morin, Caterus, Bourdin, and others whose views were compiled by Mersenne. They illuminate Descartes' relationships to the scholastics and particularly the Jesuits, to Mersenne's circle with its debates about the natural sciences, to the Epicurean movements of his day, and to the Augustinian tradition. Providing a glimpse of the interactions among leading 17th-century intellectuals as they grappled with major philosophical issues, this book sheds light on how Descartes' thought developed and was articulated in opposition to the ideas of his contemporaries.
Rethinking The Foundations of Modern Political Thought
Author: Annabel Brett
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2006-12-07
Total Pages: 27
ISBN-13: 113945997X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKQuentin Skinner's classic study The Foundations of Modern Political Thought was first published by Cambridge in 1978. This was the first of a series of outstanding publications that have changed forever the way the history of political thought is taught and practised. Rethinking the Foundations of Modern Political Thought looks afresh at the impact of the original work, asks why it still matters, and considers a number of significant agendas that it still inspires. A very distinguished international team of contributors has been assembled, including John Pocock, Richard Tuck and David Armitage, and the result is an unusually powerful and cohesive contribution to the history of ideas, of interest to large numbers of students of early modern history and political thought. In conclusion, Skinner replies to each chapter and presents his own thoughts on the latest trends and the future direction of the history of political thought.
The Politics of Logic
Author: Paul Livingston
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2012-03-22
Total Pages: 404
ISBN-13: 113665674X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn this book, Livingston develops the political implications of formal results obtained over the course of the twentieth century in set theory, metalogic, and computational theory. He argues that the results achieved by thinkers such as Cantor, Russell, Godel, Turing, and Cohen, even when they suggest inherent paradoxes and limitations to the structuring capacities of language or symbolic thought, have far-reaching implications for understanding the nature of political communities and their development and transformation. Alain Badiou's analysis of logical-mathematical structures forms the backbone of his comprehensive and provocative theory of ontology, politics, and the possibilities of radical change. Through interpretive readings of Badiou's work as well as the texts of Giorgio Agamben, Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, Livingston develops a formally based taxonomy of critical positions on the nature and structure of political communities. These readings, along with readings of Parmenides and Plato, show how the formal results can transfigure two interrelated and ancient problems of the One and the Many: the problem of the relationship of a Form or Idea to the many of its participants, and the problem of the relationship of a social whole to its many constituents.
Meditations on Modern Political Thought
Author: Jean Bethke Elshtain
Publisher:
Published: 1986
Total Pages: 128
ISBN-13: 9780030621895
DOWNLOAD EBOOKReconstructing Political Theory
Author: Mary Lyndon Shanley
Publisher: Penn State Press
Published: 1997
Total Pages: 252
ISBN-13: 9780271017259
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn this volume, a companion to Feminist Interpretations and Political Theory (Penn State, 1991) edited by Mary Lyndon Shanley and Carole Pateman, leading feminist theorists rethink the traditional concepts of political theory and expand the range of problems and concerns regarded as central to the analysis of political life. Written by well-known scholars in philosophy, political science, sociology, and law, the book provides a rich interdisciplinary account of key issues in political thought. While some of the chapters discuss traditional concepts such as rights, power, freedom, and citizenship, others argue that topics less frequently discussed in political theory--such as the family, childhood, dependency, compassion and suffering--are just as significant for an understanding of political life. The Introduction shows how such diverse topics can be linked together and how feminist political theory can be elaborated systematically if it takes notions of independence and dependency, public and private, and power and empowerment as central to its agenda.
Discourse on Method and Meditations
Author: Rene Descartes
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Published: 2003-01-01
Total Pages: 134
ISBN-13: 9780486432526
DOWNLOAD EBOOKTwo works from the father of modern philosophy. In Discourse on Method, he formulated a scientific approach comprising four principles, including to accept only what reason recognizes as "clear and distinct." In Meditations, he explores the mind/body distinction, the nature of truth and error, the existence of God, and the essence of material things.
Nietzsche's Political Skepticism
Author: Tamsin Shaw
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2010-07-21
Total Pages: 171
ISBN-13: 0691146535
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIt is difficult to spell out the precise political implications of Nietzsche's critique of morality. He himself never did so in any systematic way. Tamsin Shaw argues there is a reason for this: that Nietzsche's insights entail a distinctive form of political skepticism.
