The Philosophy of Parochialism

The Philosophy of Parochialism

Author: Radomir Konstantinovic

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 2021-10-07

Total Pages: 367

ISBN-13: 0472132725

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Available for the first time in English--an essay with important insights on the sources of totalitarianism, intolerance, and racism


The Philosophy of Parochialism

The Philosophy of Parochialism

Author: Radomir Konstantinovic

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 2021-10-07

Total Pages: 367

ISBN-13: 0472129341

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The Philosophy of Parochialism is Radomir Konstantinović’s (1928–2011) most celebrated and reviled book. First published in Belgrade as Filosofija palanke in 1969, it attracted keen attention and controversy through its unsparing critique of Serbian and any other nationalism in Yugoslavia and beyond. The book was prophetic, seeming to anticipate not only the bloody disintegration of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, but also the totalitarian turn in politics across the globe in the first decades of the new century. With this translation, English-speaking audiences can at last discover one of the most original writers of eastern European late modernism, and gain an important and original perspective into contemporary politics and culture in the West and beyond. This is a book that seems to age in reverse, as its meanings become deeper and more universal with the passage of time. Konstantinović’sbookresists easy classification, mixing classical, Montaigne-like essay, prose poetry, novel, and literary history. The word “philosophy” in the book’s title refers to the solitary activity of reflection and critical thinking, and is also paradoxical: according to the author, a defining characteristic of parochialism is precisely its intolerance toward this kind of self-reflexivity. In Konstantinović’s analysis, parochialism is not a simply a characteristic of a geographical region or a cultural, political, and historical formation—these are all just manifestations of the parochial spirit as the spirit of insularity. His book illuminates the current moment, in which insularity undergirds not only ethnic and national divisions, but also dictates the very structure of everyday life, and where individuals can easily find themselves locked in an echo chamber of social media. The Philosophy of Parochialism can help us understand better not only the dead ends of ethnic nationalism and other atavistic ideologies, but also of those cultural forces such as digital technologies that have been built on the promise of overcoming those ideologies.


The Theology of Ethnocultural Empathic Turn

The Theology of Ethnocultural Empathic Turn

Author: Branko Sekulic

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2024-10-15

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 197871663X

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The Theology of Ethnocultural Empathic Turn: Getting to the Core of Sacralized Crime delves into the roots of ethnoreligious tensions in the former Yugoslav territories and it provides a comprehensive understanding of this specific politico-religious issue, exposing how the sacralization of ethnonational mythology influences present-day conflicts. Through meticulous analysis, the author examines the intertwining of (ethno)totalitarianism and (ethno)clericalism in mentioned areas. Transitioning from historical analysis to proposing a solution, the author advocates for an “ethnocultural empathy turn,” integrating ethnocultural empathy as a branch of social psychology with the example of Jesus’s turn in Matthew 15:21–28. This book contributes significantly to developing the first Balkan contextual theology, drawing upon new political theology and theologies of liberation.


Parochialism, Cosmopolitanism, and the Foundations of International Law

Parochialism, Cosmopolitanism, and the Foundations of International Law

Author: Mortimer N. S. Sellers

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 0521518024

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This book examines the boundary between parochial and cosmopolitan justice. To what extent should international law recognize or support the political, historical, cultural, and economic differences among nations? Ten lawyers and philosophers from five continents consider whether certain states or persons deserve special treatment, exemptions, or heightened duties under international law. This volume draws the line between international law, national jurisdiction, and the private autonomy of persons.


Philosophy Within Its Proper Bounds

Philosophy Within Its Proper Bounds

Author: Edouard Machery

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017-07-26

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0192534521

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In Philosophy Within Its Proper Bounds, Edouard Machery argues that resolving many traditional and contemporary philosophical issues is beyond our epistemic reach and that philosophy should re-orient itself toward more humble, but ultimately more important intellectual endeavors. Any resolution to many of these contemporary issues would require an epistemic access to metaphysical possibilities and necessities, which, Machery argues, we do not have. In effect, then, Philosophy Within Its Proper Bounds defends a form of modal skepticism. The book assesses the main philosophical method for acquiring the modal knowledge that the resolution of modally immodest philosophical issues turns on: the method of cases, that is, the consideration of actual or hypothetical situations (which cases or thought experiments describe) in order to determine what facts hold in these situations. Canvassing the extensive work done by experimental philosophers over the last 15 years, Edouard Machery shows that the method of cases is unreliable and should be rejected. Importantly, the dismissal of modally immodest philosophical issues is no cause for despair - many important philosophical issues remain within our epistemic reach. In particular, reorienting the course of philosophy would free time and resources for bringing back to prominence a once-central intellectual endeavor: conceptual analysis.


Human Rights, Legitimacy, and the Use of Force

Human Rights, Legitimacy, and the Use of Force

Author: Allen Buchanan

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2010-01-13

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 0199741662

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The thirteen essays by Allen Buchanan collected here are arranged in such a way as to make evident their thematic interconnections: the important and hitherto unappreciated relationships among the nature and grounding of human rights, the legitimacy of international institutions, and the justification for using military force across borders. Each of these three topics has spawned a significant literature, but unfortunately has been treated in isolation. In this volume Buchanan makes the case for a holistic, systematic approach, and in so doing constitutes a major contribution at the intersection of International Political Philosophy and International Legal Theory. A major theme of Buchanan's book is the need to combine the philosopher's normative analysis with the political scientist's focus on institutions. Instead of thinking first about norms and then about institutions, if at all, only as mechanisms for implementing norms, it is necessary to consider alternative "packages" consisting of norms and institutions. Whether a particular norm is acceptable can depend upon the institutional context in which it is supposed to be instantiated, and whether a particular institutional arrangement is acceptable can depend on whether it realizes norms of legitimacy or of justice, or at least has a tendency to foster the conditions under which such norms can be realized. In order to evaluate institutions it is necessary not only to consider how well they implement norms that are now considered valid but also their capacity for fostering the epistemic conditions under which norms can be contested, revised, and improved.


Disentangling Consciencism

Disentangling Consciencism

Author: Martin Odei Ajei

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2016-12-06

Total Pages: 375

ISBN-13: 149851152X

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Kwame Nkrumah is globally recognized as a foremost pan-Africanist strategist and statesman. He is less widely acknowledged as a philosopher, in spite of his considerable philosophical training, seminal contribution to African political theory, and incisive critique of the ethics of international relations. Consciencism has the distinctive status of being the only published book that Nkrumah consciously meant to be a work of his philosophy, yet it has failed to attract the focused attention of philosophers. The chapters in Disentangling Consciencism: Essays on Kwame Nkrumah’s Philosophy critically explore the metaphysical, ethical and political thought expressed in Consciencism. In doing so, they broaden our understanding of his philosophical ideas and their relevance for effective African contribution to thought in a contemporary world in which Africa increasingly totters on the margins of international affairs. In much of current moral and political thinking, there is a tendency to universalize liberal values and neglect non-Western philosophical perspectives. At the same time, global normative thinking is overwhelmingly applied in non-Western contexts. Writing from across three continents, the contributors to this volume establish greater intellectual connection among African, Asian and Western academics, and their chapters offer explicit perspectives on the value of Nkrumah’s philosophy, and on the conceptual basis of early post-colonial public policy options in Africa. A valuable appendix provides the text of speeches delivered at the 1964 launch of Consciencism. With insights into numerous dimensions of Nkrumah’s philosophy, this volume will be of particular interest to students and scholars of philosophy—especially of non-Western metaphysical, moral and political thought—and to anyone working in the history of African political theory.