Thinking Politically

Download or read book How to Think Politically written by James Bernard Murphy and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-08-08 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A wonderful introduction to history's most influential scribblers' – Steven Pinker What is truly at stake in politics? Nothing less than how we should live, as individuals and as communities. This book goes beyond the surface headlines, the fake news and the hysteria to explore the timeless questions posed and answers offered by a diverse group of the 30 greatest political thinkers who have ever lived. Are we political, economic, or religious animals? Should we live in small city-states, nations, or multinational empires? What values should politics promote? Should wealth be owned privately or in common? Do animals also have rights? There is no idea too radical for this global assortment of thinkers, which includes: Confucius; Plato; Augustine; Machiavelli; Burke; Wollstonecraft; Marx; Nietzsche; Gandhi; Qutb; Arendt; Nussbaum, Naess and Rawls. In each brief chapter, the authors paint a vivid portrait of these often prescient, always compelling political thinkers, showing how their ideas grew out of their own dramatic lives and times and evolved beyond them. Now more than ever we need to be reminded that politics can be a noble, inspiring and civilising art. And if we want to understand today's political world, we need to understand the foundations of politics and its architects. This is the perfect guide to both.

Download or read book Democracy's Reconstruction written by Katharine Lawrence Balfour and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-03-16 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Democracy's Reconstruction, the latest addition to Cathy Cohen and Fredrick Harris's Transgressing Boundaries series, noted political theorist Lawrie Balfour challenges a longstanding tendency in political theory: the disciplinary division that separates political theory proper from the study of black politics. Political theory rarely engages with black political thinkers, despite the fact that the problem of racial inequality is central to the entire enterprise of American political theory. To address this lacuna, she focuses on the political thought of W.E.B. Du Bois, particularly his longstanding concern with the relationship between slavery's legacy and the prospects for democracy in the era he lived in. Balfour utilizes Du Bois as an intellectual resource, applying his method of addressing contemporary problems via the historical prism of slavery to address some of the fundamental racial divides and inequalities in contemporary America. By establishing his theoretical method to study these historical connections, she positions Du Bois's work in the political theory canon--similar to the status it already has in history, sociology, philosophy, and literature.

Download or read book Thinking Politically written by Michael Walzer and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of the most important writings of Michael Walzer, one of the world's most influential political thinkers Michael Walzer is widely regarded as one of the world's leading political theorists. In a career spanning more than fifty years, he has wrestled with some of the most crucial political ideas and questions of the day, developing original conceptions of democracy, social justice, liberalism, civil society, nationalism, multiculturalism, and terrorism. Thinking Politically brings together some of Walzer's most important work to provide a wide-ranging survey of his thinking and the vision that underlies his responses to contemporary political debates. The book also includes a previously unpublished essay on human rights. David Miller's substantial introduction presents a detailed analysis of the development of Walzer's ideas and connects them to wider currents of political thought. In addition, the book includes a recent interview with Walzer on a range of topical issues, and a detailed bibliography of his works. This collection will be welcomed by scholars in politics and philosophy, as well as anyone keen to engage in discussion on some of the key issues of our times.

Download or read book Political Thinking, Political Theory, and Civil Society written by Steven M. DeLue and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-07-01 with total page 489 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive overview of the Western tradition of political thought approaches concepts with the aim of helping readers develop their own political thinking and critical thinking skills. This text is uniquely organized around the theme of civil society — what is the nature of a civil society? why is it important? — that will engage students and help make the material relevant. Major thinkers discussed in the text are explored not only with the goal of understanding their views, but also with an interest in understanding the relationship of their ideas to the notion of a civil society. DeLue and Dale contend that a civil society is important for securing the way of life that most of us value and want to preserve, a way of life that allows people to live freely and place significance on their own lives. New to the Fourth Edition Connects traditional political theory to contemporary challenges to civil society including new coverage of US electoral politics, the Black Lives Matter movement, Citizens United, and Robert Putnam’s view of the decline of social support systems. Updates the coverage of feminism and feminist thinkers, including coverage of gay marriage, in the context of civil society. Expands coverage of global civil society, especially in terms of contemporary challenges posed by ISIS, the failure of the Arab Spring, and ongoing humanitarian crises in Syria, Iran, and beyond.

Download or read book Thinking Politically written by Raymond Aron and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-03-12 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thinking Politically brings together a series of remarkable interviews with Raymond Arn that form a political history of our time. Ranging over an entire lifetime, from his youthful experience with the rise of Nazi totalitarianism in Berlin to the dénouement of the cold war. Aron mediates on the threats to liberty and reason in the bloody twentieth century. Originally published as The Committed Observer, this volume provides one of the fullest accounts available of the dramatic events of the "short century," which began with the pistol shot in Saravejo in 1914 and ended with the collapse of the ideological monsters whose deadly nature Aron had ruthlessly exposed for a half-century. In addition to the interviews published in the original edition. Thinking Politically incorporates three interviews never before published in book form. This supplemental material clarifies Aron's role as a voice of prudential reason in an unreasonable age and allows unparalled access to the principal influences on Aron's thought. The volume concludes with 'Democratic States and Totalitarian States," an address by Aron to the French Philosophical Society as well as the accompanying debate with Jacques Maritain, Victor Basch, and other intellectuals. Thinking Politically serves as an ideal gateway into Aron's reflections, and offers a superb single-volume introduction to the major events and conflicts of the twentieth century. It will be a welcome addition to the libraries of political theorists, historians, sociologists, philosophers, and citizens wishing to understand the political and intellectual currents of the age.

Download or read book Thinking Politically written by Raymond Aron and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thinking Politically brings together a series of remarkable interviews with Raymond Aron that form a political history of our time. Ranging over an entire lifetime, from his youthful experience with the rise of Nazi totalitarianism in Berlin to the denouement of the cold war, Aron meditates on the threats to liberty and reason in the bloody twentieth century. In addition to the interviews published in the original edition, Thinking Politically incorporates three interviews never before published in book form. This supplemental material clarifies Aron's role as a voice of prudential reason in an unreasonable age and allows unparalleled access to the principal influences on Aron's thought. The volume concludes with "Democratic States and Totalitarian States," an address by Aron to the French Philosophical Society as well as the accompanying debate with Jacques Maritain, Victor Basch, and other intellectuals.

Download or read book On the Political written by Chantal Mouffe and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2011-02-25 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chantal Mouffe presents a timely and stimulating account of the current state of democracy, exploring contemporary examples such as the Iraq war, racism and the rise of the far right.