Political Friendship and the Good Life

2002-07-31
 |  Law
Political Friendship and the Good Life

Author: G. Zanetti

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

ISBN: 9041118810

Category: Law

Page: 168

View: 805

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The main subject of this book is the rather fascinating link between an acceptable concept of political whole and its legal and moral implications. When we face this problem, we find that widespread categories like `happiness' and "friendship" are at the same time necessary and dangerous, crucial and elusive. In order to make the case against the so-called Legal Enforcement of Morals, and to grasp the complex relationship between law and morality from a liberal point of view, it is not enough to reject a pattern of happiness, or of human flourishing, from which to draw normative instructions for men and women - it must be recognized that integration of individuals in the comprehensive groups, as well as in the political whole itself, is not the only valuable option. The fragile value of a relative lack of integration, a "right to unhappiness", turns out to be, eventually, what makes the weak, but decisive, moral primacy of liberal societies.

Political Friendship and Degrowth

2022-01-31
 |  Social Science
Political Friendship and Degrowth

Author: Areti Giannopoulou

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781000531022

Category: Social Science

Page: 180

View: 714

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Developing a contemporary account of political friendship and synthesizing it with the radical movement of degrowth, this book provides the ethical grounding and the rationale of an alternative economy which serves human flourishing. The Aristotelian political friendship embodies active concern for the others’ well-being that contemporary societies lack; the crucial problems of ecological destruction and global poverty illustrate this friendship deficit. Arguing for the need for re-embracing a friendly civic ethos and re-aligning the economy with moral objectives, the author updates the Aristotelian idea and identifies it with democratic-autonomous political-economic praxis that ensures citizens’ self-actualization. Degrowth movement questioning economic growth and productivism, and privileging a simpler life with less material goods, favours political friendship precisely because it nourishes its unconscious substratum namely human instinctual sociality. The call for genuine democratic political praxis that political friendship implies could enable the degrowth movement to retain its radical character and accomplish the shift to an economy which serves life. The book is worthwhile studying by students and researchers across social sciences and especially by scholars in the fields of sociology, philosophy, and politics, but also a broader readership sensitive to the issues of social and environmental sustainability will find this work extremely interesting.

The Problems of a Political Animal

1993-08-09
 |  Philosophy
The Problems of a Political Animal

Author: Bernard Yack

Publisher: Univ of California Press

ISBN: 9780520081673

Category: Philosophy

Page: 319

View: 252

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"Yack does a marvelous job of disentangling Aristotle's thought from contemporary communitarianism and of demonstrating how for Aristotle conflict can coexist with community. . . . A well-written, bold book that flings open the doors and lets some sunlight into a very musty room."—William Galston, Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy "An ingenious, provocative, exciting reinterpretation of Aristotle. . . . Yack's insights make this one of the most valuable things to appear on Aristotle's political thought in many years."—Harvey Goldman, author of Politics, Death and the Devil

Form of Politics

2016-06-01
 |  Philosophy
Form of Politics

Author: John von Heyking

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

ISBN: 9780773599291

Category: Philosophy

Page:

View: 326

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For statesmen, friendship is the lingua franca of politics. Considering the connections between personal and political friendship, John von Heyking’s The Form of Politics interprets the texts of Plato and Aristotle and emphasizes the role that friendship has in enduring philosophical and contemporary political contexts. Beginning with a discussion on virtue-friendship, described by Aristotle and Plato as an agreement on what qualifies as the pursuit of good, The Form of Politics demonstrates that virtue and political friendship form a paradoxical relationship in which political friendships need to be nourished by virtue-friendships that transcend the moral and intellectual horizons of the political society. Von Heyking then examines Aristotle’s ethical and political writings – which are set within the boundaries of political life – and Plato’s dialogues on friendship in Lysis and the Laws, which characterize political friendship as festivity. Ultimately, arguing that friendship is the high point of a virtuous political life, von Heyking presents a fresh interpretation of Aristotle and Plato’s political thought, and a new take on the most essential goals in politics. Inviting reassessment of the relationship between friendship and politics by returning to the origins of Western philosophy, The Form of Politics is a lucid work on the foundations of political cooperation.

Friendship in Politics

2013-10-18
 |  Political Science
Friendship in Politics

Author: Preston King

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781317969679

Category: Political Science

Page: 214

View: 459

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Previously published as a special issue of the Critical Review of Social and Political Philosophy, this volume throws light on the place of friendship in politics by connecting theoretical questions to empirical answers. Today, friendship and politics are most commonly viewed as distinct and mutually opposed concerns. Politics tends to be seen as general and impersonal, to do with power and hierarchy. Friendship, by contrast, is conceived as particular and intimate, relating to equality and fraternity. Ancient Greek and Roman thought tended to bring the two together, locating friendship as the moral foundation of the political. But is this view sound? Ought not Friendship to be dismissed by moderns as primitive, inefficient, nepotistic (Freud)? Or ought it to be promoted as a vital moral constraint on power and the consuming egotism of rulers (Plutarch and others)? The contributors seek to answer these questions, directly and indirectly, by supplying: analyses of the concept critical reconstructions of some crucial modern accounts (Kierkegaard, Arendt and Schmitt) concrete accounts of the actual play of friendship both within and between states.

The Reconstruction of the Juridico-Political

2015-12-22
 |  Law
The Reconstruction of the Juridico-Political

Author: Ian Bryan

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781136007682

Category: Law

Page: 208

View: 801

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Hans Kelsen and Max Weber are conventionally understood as the original proponents of two distinct and opposed processes of concept formation generating two separate and contrasting theoretical frameworks for the study of law. The Reconstruction of the Juridico-Political: Affinity and Divergence in Hans Kelsen and Max Weber contests the conventional understanding of the theoretical relationship between Kelsen’s legal positivism and Weber’s sociology of law. Utilising the conceptual frame of the juridico-political, the contributors to this interdisciplinary volume analyse central points of affinity and divergence in the work of these two influential figures. Thus, the chapters collected in The Reconstruction of the Juridico-Political offer a comprehensive reconsideration of these affinities and divergences, through a comparison of their respective reconstruction of the notions of democracy, the State, legal rights and the character of law. From this reconsideration a more complex understanding of their theoretical relationship emerges combined with a renewed emphasis upon the continued contemporary relevance of the work of Kelsen and Weber.

Politics in Friendship: A Theological Account

2014-09-25
 |  Religion
Politics in Friendship: A Theological Account

Author: Guido de Graaff

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

ISBN: 9780567655622

Category: Religion

Page: 240

View: 798

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Guido de Graaff explores the political dimension and significance of friendship, arguing that its specific contribution lies not only in its theological approach, but also in its particular focus distinguishing the 'political' from the 'social' and/or 'civic'. The book's explorations are framed around a particular story of friendship: the story of Bishop George Bell and German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Drawing on Hannah Arendt and Oliver O'Donovan, de Graaff argues that Bell and Bonhoeffer's story can be read as one of friends assuming the responsibility of political judgment in an emergency situation - their story casts doubts on secular politics as the primary context for interpreting the friends' judgments. Thus the book provides a more comprehensive account of the story, also interpreting it against the background of the life of the church (with special attention to John 15 and Romans 12). De Graaff concludes by showing how a theological account is vital for discerning the distinct politics of the church, including opportunities for Christian engagement in secular politics.

Human Dignity, Education, and Political Society

2020-07-15
 |  Education
Human Dignity, Education, and Political Society

Author: James Greenaway

Publisher: Lexington Books

ISBN: 9781793611017

Category: Education

Page: 253

View: 448

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A life of liberty and responsibility does not just happen, but requires a particular kind of education, one that aims at both a growth of the human soul and an enrichment of political society in justice and the common good. This we call a liberal education. Forgetfulness of liberty is also a forgetfulness of the multi-dimensional nature of the human person, and a diminution of political life. Keeping in mind what can be lost when liberal education is lost, this volume makes the case for recovering what is perennially noble and good in the liberal arts, and why the liberal arts always have a role to play in human flourishing. Each of the authors herein focuses on the connection of three primary themes: human dignity, liberal education, and political society. Intentionally rooted in the hub that joins the three themes, each author seeks to unfold the contemporary significance of that hub. As a whole, the volume explores how the three themes are crucial to each other: how they illuminate each other, how they need each other, and how the loss of one jeopardizes the wellbeing of the others. In individual chapters, the authors engage various relevant aspects of liberal education. As a result, the volume is organized into three parts: Liberal Education and a Life Well Lived; Thinkers on Dignity and Education in History; Contemporary Topics in Dignity and Education. As education is increasingly channeled into an ever more narrow focus on technical specialization, and measured against professional success, students themselves face a maelstrom of campus politics and competing political orthodoxies. These are among the issues that tend to militate against the operative liberty of the student to think and to speak as a person. This edited collection is offered as an invitation to think again about the liberal arts in order to recover the meaning of education as the authentic pursuit of the good life or eudemonia.

The Challenge to Friendship in Modernity

2013-11-05
 |  History
The Challenge to Friendship in Modernity

Author: Heather Devere

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781135306465

Category: History

Page: 209

View: 697

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In antiquity, it was not only Aristotle who assumed the people are more to be understood in relation to one another than as individual or solitary constructs. This examination considers the changing attitudes to friendship since antiquity.

International Critical Pedagogy Reader

2017-09-25
 |  Education
International Critical Pedagogy Reader

Author: Antonia Darder

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781351562539

Category: Education

Page: 340

View: 629

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Carefully curated to highlight research from more than twenty countries, the International Critical Pedagogy Reader introduces the ways the educational phenomenon that is critical pedagogy are being reinvented and reframed around the world. A collection of essays from both historical and contemporary thinkers coupled with original essays, introduce this school of thought and approach it from a wide variety of cultural, social, and political perspectives. Academics from South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and North America describe critical pedagogy’s political, ideological, and intellectual foundations, tracing its international evolution and unveiling how key scholars address similar educational challenges in diverse national contexts. Each section links theory to critical classroom practices and includes a list of sources for further reading to expand upon the selections offered in this volume. A robust collection, this reader is a crucial text for teaching and understanding critical pedagogy on a truly international level. Winner of the 2016 Alpha Sigma Nu Book Award