In particular, * they shared a sense of the thoroughgoing crisis within modernity; * they radically questioned the subject-centered inversion of the relationship of world and human being since ...Descartes; * they viewed modern society, mass democracy, and liberalism as part of a breach hi tradition in modernity; * they shared an antipathy toward neo-Kantianism and all other transcendental philosophy, as well as an attendant awareness of the irretrievable loss of all metaphysical certitudes. In hindsight, the critique of modernity and the respective attempts to come to grips with the Holocaust in the works of Heidegger, Jaspers, and Arendt highlight different facets of a tableau, which in their differences point to the uniqueness of these three authors' respective approaches, and which in their totality offer an overview of different approaches to the phenomenon of the Traditionsbruch, the breach in tradition that culminated in the events of the twentieth century.
The article explores the role of the Spartan example in Guicciardini's political thought, giving a particular attention to his early writings. Examining a series of medical metaphors Guicciardini ...uses in the analysis of the state, the author uncovers Plutarch as their main source. It is argued that Plutarch, and his description of Lacedaemon, exercised a major influence in the formation of Guicciardini's political ideas. The author focuses on the crucial issue of the usage of “Lycurgus’ knife,” while answering two key questions: (1) the feasibility of constituting a republic modelled on Sparta; (2) the legitimacy of the use of force in the cases of extreme necessity. On (2), Guicciardini's views are compared with Machiavelli's, and the difference in their understanding of
necessità pointed out.
Progressive pluralism? McLennan, Gregor
Critical review of international social and political philosophy,
03/2008, Volume:
11, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
In this article, a recent volume of pluralist political theory is taken as expressive of the state of the pluralist tradition, and subjected to critical examination. Whether couched in terms of ...empirical democratic theory, associationalist social democracy, global multi-nodal politics, or multiculturalism, both separately and together these contemporary articulations of pluralist thinking are shown to be problematical. Overall, the suggestion is that pluralism in social and political theory has become, in Lakatos's terms, a 'degenerating' rather than a 'progressive' research programme, and that inconsistencies within pluralism are indicative of the need to develop post-pluralist perspectives and visions.
A company of buccaneers invites comparison with states founded on the social contracts of Hobbes and Locke. These companies were formed by an explicit contract, the articles of agreement, and ...transgressors risked being marooned in a literal state of nature. Buccaneers were relatively
powerful and their authority structure and share system was relatively democratic. The role of venture capitalists in organizing buccaneering may explain why parallels with Locke's social contract are particularly striking. Matthew Tindall attempted to exclude pirates and include privateers
in the social contract, but conceded that sufficiently powerful pirates themselves formed states. These comparisons highlight the problem of basing human rights on contract theory.
Follows Aristotle in taking practical wisdom to be concerned with action: the distinction between action and fabrication provides a focus by constraining the problematic vagaries of the word ...`practice' and distinguishing `practical' from `instrumental'. Also discusses Aristotle's theory of maxims.
This article explores the contribution of an 'analytics of government' to state theory. This approach takes up methodological and theoretical considerations that Michel Foucault developed in his ...lectures of 1978 and 979 at the College de France on the "history of 'governmentality". The article argues that an analytics of government is characterized by three theoretical dimensions: a nominalist account that stresses the central importance of knowledge and political discourses in the constitution of the state, a broad concept of technology that encompasses not only material but also symbolic devices, including political technologies as well as technologies of the self, a strategic account that conceives of the state as an instrument and effect of political strategies. After presenting the three analytical dimensions, the last part of the article will compare this theoretical perspective with the concept of governance and with critical accounts of neo-liberalism. The article concludes that Foucault's work on governmentality opens up new directions for state theory. Adapted from the source document.
This article argues that both anti- and pro-Clausewitzians have tended to base their views on an incomplete understanding of Clausewitz. We claim that the so-called 'new wars' do not require a new ...analytical paradigm, as is suggested by anti-Clausewitzians like Martin van Creveld and John Keegan. But this does not mean that the prevailing pro-Clausewitzian discourse cannot be challenged. Clausewitz, as is well-known, employed a dialectical method of arguing in extremes. But whereas we suggest that Clausewitz sought to situate actual war between extremes, the modern discourses share the mistake of seeing the extremes as incompatible alternatives. We argue that a deeper understanding of Clausewitz's theory, and in particular his views on the state, on policy and politics, as well as on his so-called 'trinity' of competing forces of war, provides a framework for analysis that is still valid. This also implies that the attempt to replace Clausewitz with another classical thinker, Sun Tzu, may not be necessary, it may in fact be unproductive. Our approach furthermore suggests that a strong strand in anti-Clausewitzian discourse, which sees the new wars as endemic and marked by irrational, barbaric, and purposeless violence, is at least partly mistaken. The wars of the future may be endless, but they are unlikely to be without ends. Adapted from the source document.
This paper argues that Deleuze and Derrida share a conception of the open-ended character of political concepts that resembles in some respects the constructivist approach of Rawls and other liberal ...theorists. It explores the hypothesis that their understanding of concepts is related to their essentially critical conception of the task of political philosophy. It discusses Deleuze's 'becoming-democratic' and Derrida's 'democracy to come' in order to show how both philosophers offer 'transformative' concepts that draw in different ways upon elements of existing conceptions of democracy in order to open up new approaches to democratic politics. It points to strengths and weaknesses of both approaches before suggesting, finally, that Derrida's use of his concept of 'democracy to come' is in some ways the more adventurous. Adapted from the source document.
The present article is about aspects of Benedetto Croce political ideas. It tries to explain concepts expressed in the book Ethics & Politics to understand its connection & its contribution to the ...Italian liberal thought. It intends to point the details of Croce's thought about the liberalism, the characteristics of his State theory, beyond the way of question & think about the liberal concepts of equality, freedom & fraternity, which were fundamental in the liberal thought compass. References. Adapted from the source document.
The republican democracy of Philip Pettit Falcao, Luis
Teoria & pesquisa : publicação do Departamento de Ciências Sociais, Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas, Universidade Federal de São Carlos,
01/2014, Volume:
23, Issue:
2
Journal Article
This review aims to present the central arguments contained in the recent work of Philip Pettit, prioritizing the concepts he worked in other publications, with special emphasis on the most relevant ...of them. His work seeks to consolidate a large number of papers produced by him in recent years almost always focused on responses to criticisms of his best-known book, Republicanism. In the book reviewed more then the other there is a much more important institutional aspects of his political theory focusing on the democratic dimension of his republicanism. In the On the People's Term there is the theoretical effort approach with modern republicanism, but without neglecting the known notion of freedom as non-domination. Furthermore this review seeks to contribute to the understanding of the Pettit position in the contemporary debate about republicanism and the possible relationship with the contractarian tradition. It is argued that the focus of the author is the republican tradition but simultaneously with the natural law thinkers. For this point of view Pettit discuss with the current debate on democracy. Finally we sought to point out the originality of his contribution. Adapted from the source document.
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