The Public and Its Problems

The Public and Its Problems

Author: John Dewey

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 0271055693

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"An annotated edition of John Dewey's work of democratic theory, first published in 1927. Includes a substantive introduction and bibliographical essay"--Provided by publisher.


Searching for Contemporary Legal Thought

Searching for Contemporary Legal Thought

Author: Justin Desautels-Stein

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-12-28

Total Pages: 596

ISBN-13: 1108365221

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For more than a century, law schools have trained students to 'think like a lawyer'. In these times of legal crisis, both in legal education and in global society, what does that mean for the rest of us? In this book, thirty leading international scholars - including Louis Assier-Andrieu, Marianne Constable, Yves Dezalay, Denise Ferreira da Silva, Bryant Garth, Peter Goodrich, Duncan Kennedy, Martti Koskenniemi, Shaun McVeigh, Samuel Moyn, Annelise Riles, Charles Sabel and William Simon - examine what is distinctive about legal thought. They probe the relation between law and time, law and culture, and legal thought and legal action; the nature of current legal thought; the geography of legal thought; and the conditions for recognition of a new 'contemporary' style of law. This work will help theorists, social scientists, historians and students understand the intellectual context of legal problems, legal doctrine, and jurisprudential trends in the current conjuncture.


Democratic Experimentalism

Democratic Experimentalism

Author: Brian E. Butler

Publisher: Rodopi

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 940120926X

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This volume focuses on democratic experimentalism, gathering a collection of original and previously unpublished essays focusing upon its major outlines, as well as specific aspects ¿ both promising and troublesome - of this theoretical approach. Together these essays offer conceptions of democracy and democratic governance that emphasize and highlight experimentalist aspects of pragmatic thought, particularly Deweyan pragmatism, and its relationship to instantiation in concrete social and political institutions. Issues of democratic governance, political organization and the relationship of law to democracy are analyzed.


John Dewey's Democracy and Education in an Era of Globalization

John Dewey's Democracy and Education in an Era of Globalization

Author: Mordechai Gordon

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-12-18

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 1351112090

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2016 marked the hundred-year anniversary of John Dewey’s seminal work Democracy and Education. This centennial presented philosophers and educators with an opportunity to reexamine and evaluate its impact on various aspects of education in democratic societies. This volume brings together some of the leading scholars on John Dewey and education from around the world in order to reflect on the legacy of Democracy and Education, and, more generally, to consider the influence of Dewey’s ideas on education in the twenty-first century. John Dewey’s Democracy and Education in an Era of Globalization is unique in that it explores some important tensions and relationships among Dewey’s ideas on democracy, education, and human flourishing in an era of globalization. The contributors make sense of how Dewey would have interpreted and responded to the phenomenon of globalization. This book was originally published as a special issue of Educational Philosophy and Theory.


The Priority of Democracy

The Priority of Democracy

Author: Jack Knight

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2011-08-22

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 1400840333

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Why democracy is the best way of deciding how decisions should be made Pragmatism and its consequences are central issues in American politics today, yet scholars rarely examine in detail the relationship between pragmatism and politics. In The Priority of Democracy, Jack Knight and James Johnson systematically explore the subject and make a strong case for adopting a pragmatist approach to democratic politics—and for giving priority to democracy in the process of selecting and reforming political institutions. What is the primary value of democracy? When should we make decisions democratically and when should we rely on markets? And when should we accept the decisions of unelected officials, such as judges or bureaucrats? Knight and Johnson explore how a commitment to pragmatism should affect our answers to such important questions. They conclude that democracy is a good way of determining how these kinds of decisions should be made—even if what the democratic process determines is that not all decisions should be made democratically. So, for example, the democratically elected U.S. Congress may legitimately remove monetary policy from democratic decision-making by putting it under the control of the Federal Reserve. Knight and Johnson argue that pragmatism offers an original and compelling justification of democracy in terms of the unique contributions democratic institutions can make to processes of institutional choice. This focus highlights the important role that democracy plays, not in achieving consensus or commonality, but rather in addressing conflicts. Indeed, Knight and Johnson suggest that democratic politics is perhaps best seen less as a way of reaching consensus or agreement than as a way of structuring the terms of persistent disagreement.


Deweyan Experimentalism and the Problem of Method in Political Philosophy

Deweyan Experimentalism and the Problem of Method in Political Philosophy

Author: Joshua Forstenzer

Publisher: Routledge Studies in American Philosophy

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 9781138479906

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This book proposes a pragmatist methodological framework for generating practically relevant political philosophy. It draws on John Dewey's social and political philosophy to develop an "experimentalist" method, thus charting a middle course between idealism and realism in political philosophy. Deweyan experimentalism promises to balance civic deliberation, empirical facts, and moral considerations by reconstructing Dewey's pragmatist conceptions of 'philosophy' and 'democracy' from the perspective of social action. While some authors have taken the steps to articulate Dewey's experimentalism, they have focused on institutional rather than methodological implications. This book is original in the ways in which it situates the role of ideas in political practice and contemporary political problems. Additionally, it underlines the similarities between today and the historical context in which Dewey wrote, connects Dewey's social and political philosophy to Greek and Roman mythology, and concludes with a timely case study in which the author's methodological insights are applied. The result is a book that offers a focused reconstruction of Dewey's work and shows its relevance for engaging with contemporary issues in political philosophy and political theory. a timely case study in which the author's methodological insights are applied. The result is a book that offers a focused reconstruction of Dewey's work and shows its relevance for engaging with contemporary issues in political philosophy and political theory.


Digital Technology and Democratic Theory

Digital Technology and Democratic Theory

Author: Lucy Bernholz

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2021-02-17

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 022674860X

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One of the most far-reaching transformations in our era is the wave of digital technologies rolling over—and upending—nearly every aspect of life. Work and leisure, family and friendship, community and citizenship have all been modified by now-ubiquitous digital tools and platforms. Digital Technology and Democratic Theory looks closely at one significant facet of our rapidly evolving digital lives: how technology is radically changing our lives as citizens and participants in democratic governments. To understand these transformations, this book brings together contributions by scholars from multiple disciplines to wrestle with the question of how digital technologies shape, reshape, and affect fundamental questions about democracy and democratic theory. As expectations have whiplashed—from Twitter optimism in the wake of the Arab Spring to Facebook pessimism in the wake of the 2016 US election—the time is ripe for a more sober and long-term assessment. How should we take stock of digital technologies and their promise and peril for reshaping democratic societies and institutions? To answer, this volume broaches the most pressing technological changes and issues facing democracy as a philosophy and an institution.


Law, Pragmatism, and Democracy

Law, Pragmatism, and Democracy

Author: Richard A. Posner

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-07-01

Total Pages: 428

ISBN-13: 9780674042292

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A liberal state is a representative democracy constrained by the rule of law. Richard Posner argues for a conception of the liberal state based on pragmatic theories of government. He views the actions of elected officials as guided by interests rather than by reason and the decisions of judges by discretion rather than by rules. He emphasizes the institutional and material, rather than moral and deliberative, factors in democratic decision making. Posner argues that democracy is best viewed as a competition for power by means of regular elections. Citizens should not be expected to play a significant role in making complex public policy regarding, say, taxes or missile defense. The great advantage of democracy is not that it is the rule of the wise or the good but that it enables stability and orderly succession in government and limits the tendency of rulers to enrich or empower themselves to the disadvantage of the public. Posner’s theory steers between political theorists’ concept of deliberative democracy on the left and economists’ public-choice theory on the right. It makes a significant contribution to the theory of democracy—and to the theory of law as well, by showing that the principles that inform Schumpeterian democratic theory also inform the theory and practice of adjudication. The book argues for law and democracy as twin halves of a pragmatic theory of American government.