Esha Niyogi De
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198072553
- eISBN:
- 9780199080915
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198072553.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature
Drawing lessons from the intersection of literature, photography, cinema, television, dance-drama, and ethnography, this book presents a unique analysis of Indian activist thought spread over two ...
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Drawing lessons from the intersection of literature, photography, cinema, television, dance-drama, and ethnography, this book presents a unique analysis of Indian activist thought spread over two centuries. It discusses two presuppositions of liberal individualism: personal autonomy and ethical autonomy. Besides, it argues that the ‘individual’ has been creatively indigenized in modern non-Western cultures: thinkers attentive to gender in postcolonial cultures embrace selected ethical premises of the Enlightenment and its human rights discourse while they refuse possessive individualism. Debating influential schools of postcolonial and transnational studies, the chapter provides radical argument through a rich tapestry of gender portrayals drawn from two moments of modern Indian thought: the rise of humanism in the colony and the growth of new individualism in contemporary liberalized India. From autobiographical texts by nineteenth century Bengali prostitutes, point-of-view photography, as well as women-centred dance-dramas and essays by Rabindranath Tagore to representation of Tagore's works on mainstream television, video, and stage; feminist cinema, choreography and performance by Aparna Sen and Manjusri Chaki-Sircar respectively—the book makes use of such and much more to creatively engage with empire, media, and gender.Less
Drawing lessons from the intersection of literature, photography, cinema, television, dance-drama, and ethnography, this book presents a unique analysis of Indian activist thought spread over two centuries. It discusses two presuppositions of liberal individualism: personal autonomy and ethical autonomy. Besides, it argues that the ‘individual’ has been creatively indigenized in modern non-Western cultures: thinkers attentive to gender in postcolonial cultures embrace selected ethical premises of the Enlightenment and its human rights discourse while they refuse possessive individualism. Debating influential schools of postcolonial and transnational studies, the chapter provides radical argument through a rich tapestry of gender portrayals drawn from two moments of modern Indian thought: the rise of humanism in the colony and the growth of new individualism in contemporary liberalized India. From autobiographical texts by nineteenth century Bengali prostitutes, point-of-view photography, as well as women-centred dance-dramas and essays by Rabindranath Tagore to representation of Tagore's works on mainstream television, video, and stage; feminist cinema, choreography and performance by Aparna Sen and Manjusri Chaki-Sircar respectively—the book makes use of such and much more to creatively engage with empire, media, and gender.
Jonathan McKenzie
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813166308
- eISBN:
- 9780813166384
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813166308.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This book provides a fresh interpretation of Henry Thoreau’s political theory through a comprehensive interpretation of public and private writings. While recent critics have opened new vistas in ...
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This book provides a fresh interpretation of Henry Thoreau’s political theory through a comprehensive interpretation of public and private writings. While recent critics have opened new vistas in Thoreau interpretation, little attention has been paid to Thoreau’s journals and correspondence. This book argues that these private sources enhance our understanding of Thoreau’s political theory by highlighting its place within his overall philosophical mission. In particular, this book attends to the resonances between Thoreau’s overall political-theoretical mission of privatism and the Socratic practice of philosophy as a way of life. Through analyses of Thoreau’s reflective simplification, his philosophy of time, his place in the reform movements of the nineteenth century, his understanding of wildness as freedom, and his virtue-making of political indifference, this book rethinks the basic structure of Thoreau’s overall project.Less
This book provides a fresh interpretation of Henry Thoreau’s political theory through a comprehensive interpretation of public and private writings. While recent critics have opened new vistas in Thoreau interpretation, little attention has been paid to Thoreau’s journals and correspondence. This book argues that these private sources enhance our understanding of Thoreau’s political theory by highlighting its place within his overall philosophical mission. In particular, this book attends to the resonances between Thoreau’s overall political-theoretical mission of privatism and the Socratic practice of philosophy as a way of life. Through analyses of Thoreau’s reflective simplification, his philosophy of time, his place in the reform movements of the nineteenth century, his understanding of wildness as freedom, and his virtue-making of political indifference, this book rethinks the basic structure of Thoreau’s overall project.
Henry French and Richard Hoyle
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719051081
- eISBN:
- 9781781700716
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719051081.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This book uses a study of a north Essex village to make a contribution to our knowledge of England between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Earls Colne has been well known to historians as the ...
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This book uses a study of a north Essex village to make a contribution to our knowledge of England between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Earls Colne has been well known to historians as the parish of the seventeenth-century clerical diarist, Ralph Josselin, and was the subject of an extended research project by Alan Macfarlane in the early 1970s, which informed his study of English Individualism. Now, it is considered in the round with some surprising results. The authors test the theoretical perspectives of both Macfarlane and Robert Brenner, and reach new conclusions about the character of English rural society and the role that land played in it. The book asks fundamental questions about the ownership of land in early modern England and introduces a new methodology to examine these questions. In addition, it is also a study of a village with a resident gentry family — the Harlakendens — showing that the attempts by these new lords to re-mould the village after 1580 alienated many, leading to a series of well-documented power struggles. Ultimately, the book demonstrates that the Harlakendens failed to stamp their mark on the community, and their authority slowly ebbed away. In their place emerged an alternative power system dominated by copyholders and tenant farmers, who provide a rich gallery of village characters.Less
This book uses a study of a north Essex village to make a contribution to our knowledge of England between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Earls Colne has been well known to historians as the parish of the seventeenth-century clerical diarist, Ralph Josselin, and was the subject of an extended research project by Alan Macfarlane in the early 1970s, which informed his study of English Individualism. Now, it is considered in the round with some surprising results. The authors test the theoretical perspectives of both Macfarlane and Robert Brenner, and reach new conclusions about the character of English rural society and the role that land played in it. The book asks fundamental questions about the ownership of land in early modern England and introduces a new methodology to examine these questions. In addition, it is also a study of a village with a resident gentry family — the Harlakendens — showing that the attempts by these new lords to re-mould the village after 1580 alienated many, leading to a series of well-documented power struggles. Ultimately, the book demonstrates that the Harlakendens failed to stamp their mark on the community, and their authority slowly ebbed away. In their place emerged an alternative power system dominated by copyholders and tenant farmers, who provide a rich gallery of village characters.
Raymond Malewitz
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780804791960
- eISBN:
- 9780804792998
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804791960.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
The Practice of Misuse examines the oppositional emergence and eventual ideological containment of “rugged consumers” in late twentieth-century American literature, who creatively misuse, reuse, and ...
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The Practice of Misuse examines the oppositional emergence and eventual ideological containment of “rugged consumers” in late twentieth-century American literature, who creatively misuse, reuse, and repurpose the objects within their environments to suit their idiosyncratic needs and desires. The book shows how authors such as Sam Shepard, Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, Chuck Pahlaniuk, Cormac McCarthy, and Margaret Atwood position their rugged consumers within the intertwined American myths of primal nature and rugged individualism, creating left- and right-libertarian maker communities that are skeptical of both traditional political institutions and (in its pre-neoliberal state) globalized corporate capitalism. Through their unorthodox encounters with the material world, rugged consumers can temporarily suspend the various networks of power that dictate the proper use of a given commodity and reveal those networks to be contingent strategies that must be perpetually renewed and reinforced rather than naturalized processes that persist untroubled through time and space. At the same time, this Utopian ideal is rarely met: most examples of rugged consumerism conceal rather than foreground the ideological problems to which they respond and thus support or ignore rather than challenge the conditions of late capitalist consumerism. By analyzing both the rare convergences and common divergences between individual material practices and collectivist politics, this study shows how rugged consumerism both recodes and reflects the dynamic social history of objects in American material and literary cultures from the 1960s to the present.Less
The Practice of Misuse examines the oppositional emergence and eventual ideological containment of “rugged consumers” in late twentieth-century American literature, who creatively misuse, reuse, and repurpose the objects within their environments to suit their idiosyncratic needs and desires. The book shows how authors such as Sam Shepard, Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, Chuck Pahlaniuk, Cormac McCarthy, and Margaret Atwood position their rugged consumers within the intertwined American myths of primal nature and rugged individualism, creating left- and right-libertarian maker communities that are skeptical of both traditional political institutions and (in its pre-neoliberal state) globalized corporate capitalism. Through their unorthodox encounters with the material world, rugged consumers can temporarily suspend the various networks of power that dictate the proper use of a given commodity and reveal those networks to be contingent strategies that must be perpetually renewed and reinforced rather than naturalized processes that persist untroubled through time and space. At the same time, this Utopian ideal is rarely met: most examples of rugged consumerism conceal rather than foreground the ideological problems to which they respond and thus support or ignore rather than challenge the conditions of late capitalist consumerism. By analyzing both the rare convergences and common divergences between individual material practices and collectivist politics, this study shows how rugged consumerism both recodes and reflects the dynamic social history of objects in American material and literary cultures from the 1960s to the present.
George Rupp
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231174282
- eISBN:
- 9780231539869
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231174282.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
In many places around the world, relations between ethnic and religious groups that for long periods coexisted more or less amicably are now fraught with aggression and violence. This trend has ...
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In many places around the world, relations between ethnic and religious groups that for long periods coexisted more or less amicably are now fraught with aggression and violence. This trend has profound international implications, threatening efforts to narrow the gap between rich and poor. Underscoring the need for sustained action, George Rupp urges the secular West to reckon with the continuing power of religious conviction and embrace the full extent of the world’s diversity. While individualism is a powerful force in Western cultures and a cornerstone of Western foreign policy, it elicits strong resistance in traditional communities. Drawing on decades of research and experience, Rupp pushes modern individualism beyond its foundational beliefs to recognize the place of communal practice in our world. Affirming the value of communities and the productive role religion plays in many lives, he advocates new solutions to such global challenges as conflicts in the developing world, income inequality, climate change, and mass migration.Less
In many places around the world, relations between ethnic and religious groups that for long periods coexisted more or less amicably are now fraught with aggression and violence. This trend has profound international implications, threatening efforts to narrow the gap between rich and poor. Underscoring the need for sustained action, George Rupp urges the secular West to reckon with the continuing power of religious conviction and embrace the full extent of the world’s diversity. While individualism is a powerful force in Western cultures and a cornerstone of Western foreign policy, it elicits strong resistance in traditional communities. Drawing on decades of research and experience, Rupp pushes modern individualism beyond its foundational beliefs to recognize the place of communal practice in our world. Affirming the value of communities and the productive role religion plays in many lives, he advocates new solutions to such global challenges as conflicts in the developing world, income inequality, climate change, and mass migration.
George Rupp
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231174282
- eISBN:
- 9780231539869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231174282.003.0011
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
A global quest for inclusive communities inescapably must struggle with conflict situations worldwide, but it in the end unavoidably must also engage the most encompassing challenge that confronts ...
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A global quest for inclusive communities inescapably must struggle with conflict situations worldwide, but it in the end unavoidably must also engage the most encompassing challenge that confronts the human community, namely the ecological threat to the viability of life on Earth.Less
A global quest for inclusive communities inescapably must struggle with conflict situations worldwide, but it in the end unavoidably must also engage the most encompassing challenge that confronts the human community, namely the ecological threat to the viability of life on Earth.
George Rupp
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231174282
- eISBN:
- 9780231539869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231174282.003.0012
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
To address the dimension of the resistance to individualism that is warranted, its values can and should be integrated into an affirmation of community.
To address the dimension of the resistance to individualism that is warranted, its values can and should be integrated into an affirmation of community.
George Rupp
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231174282
- eISBN:
- 9780231539869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231174282.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
As all of us wrestle with the question of what is the good life, we need to focus not only on individual happiness and accomplishment—on our love and our work—as aims in themselves but also to ...
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As all of us wrestle with the question of what is the good life, we need to focus not only on individual happiness and accomplishment—on our love and our work—as aims in themselves but also to recognize that such goals can be attained only as we also engage larger issues, participate in ever more inclusive communities, and commit ourselves to causes that in the end embrace all of humanity, indeed the whole cosmos.Less
As all of us wrestle with the question of what is the good life, we need to focus not only on individual happiness and accomplishment—on our love and our work—as aims in themselves but also to recognize that such goals can be attained only as we also engage larger issues, participate in ever more inclusive communities, and commit ourselves to causes that in the end embrace all of humanity, indeed the whole cosmos.
Paul Spicker
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781447309086
- eISBN:
- 9781447310860
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447309086.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
This book is about individualist ideas, and how they shape public policy.. It has been argued that individualism and the protection of individual liberty imply a greater emphasis on market economics, ...
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This book is about individualist ideas, and how they shape public policy.. It has been argued that individualism and the protection of individual liberty imply a greater emphasis on market economics, limits on the role of the state, respect for property rights and personal moral responsibility for one’s own situation. Those arguments have been used to justify a series of restrictive measures in public policy - individualised responses, choice-based policies, conversion of public services into market-based organisations and placing limits on the activity of government. This book argues for a very different approach to individualism, promoting policies that value people as individuals, safeguarding personal liberty and protecting human dignity.Less
This book is about individualist ideas, and how they shape public policy.. It has been argued that individualism and the protection of individual liberty imply a greater emphasis on market economics, limits on the role of the state, respect for property rights and personal moral responsibility for one’s own situation. Those arguments have been used to justify a series of restrictive measures in public policy - individualised responses, choice-based policies, conversion of public services into market-based organisations and placing limits on the activity of government. This book argues for a very different approach to individualism, promoting policies that value people as individuals, safeguarding personal liberty and protecting human dignity.
Delia Baldassarri
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199828241
- eISBN:
- 9780199979783
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199828241.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
Chapter 1 draws a profile of the voter as decision maker, the protagonist of a choice. Voting is argued to be a nonrandom yet notdetermined, individual, and reasoned choice. The chapter confronts the ...
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Chapter 1 draws a profile of the voter as decision maker, the protagonist of a choice. Voting is argued to be a nonrandom yet notdetermined, individual, and reasoned choice. The chapter confronts the more general problem of the rationality of human action, arguing that recent attempts to extend the concept of rationality to incorporate the cognitive limitations and contextual constraints of human decision making have led to a blurred distinction between rational and nonrational action. These considerations form the base of two important aspects of the book. First, the research investigates the reasoning that leads to a particular choice, not the rationality or correctness of that choice. Second, since the rationality of human action can only be defined in relation to the context and the actual capacities of the actor, different individuals might employ diverse decision-making strategies.Less
Chapter 1 draws a profile of the voter as decision maker, the protagonist of a choice. Voting is argued to be a nonrandom yet notdetermined, individual, and reasoned choice. The chapter confronts the more general problem of the rationality of human action, arguing that recent attempts to extend the concept of rationality to incorporate the cognitive limitations and contextual constraints of human decision making have led to a blurred distinction between rational and nonrational action. These considerations form the base of two important aspects of the book. First, the research investigates the reasoning that leads to a particular choice, not the rationality or correctness of that choice. Second, since the rationality of human action can only be defined in relation to the context and the actual capacities of the actor, different individuals might employ diverse decision-making strategies.
John J. McDermott (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823224845
- eISBN:
- 9780823284894
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823224845.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
This chapter examines the nature of truth. It provides a classification of the main motives which are represented by the principal recent theories regarding the nature of truth. First, there is the ...
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This chapter examines the nature of truth. It provides a classification of the main motives which are represented by the principal recent theories regarding the nature of truth. First, there is the motive especially suggested by the study of the history of institutions, by people's whole interest in what are called “evolutionary processes,” and by a large part of people's recent psychological investigation. This is the motive which leads many to describe human life altogether as a more or less progressive adjustment to a natural environment. The second motive is the same as that which, in ethics, is responsible for so many sorts of recent Individualism. It is the longing to be self-possessed and inwardly free, the determination to submit to no merely external authority. Meanwhile, the third motive has led to the discovery of what are novel truths regarding the fundamental relations upon which all of human thought and human activity rest.Less
This chapter examines the nature of truth. It provides a classification of the main motives which are represented by the principal recent theories regarding the nature of truth. First, there is the motive especially suggested by the study of the history of institutions, by people's whole interest in what are called “evolutionary processes,” and by a large part of people's recent psychological investigation. This is the motive which leads many to describe human life altogether as a more or less progressive adjustment to a natural environment. The second motive is the same as that which, in ethics, is responsible for so many sorts of recent Individualism. It is the longing to be self-possessed and inwardly free, the determination to submit to no merely external authority. Meanwhile, the third motive has led to the discovery of what are novel truths regarding the fundamental relations upon which all of human thought and human activity rest.
Alan Patten
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199251568
- eISBN:
- 9780191598180
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199251568.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Considers how Hegel could both accept the starting point of social contract theory (the commitment to freedom) and reject what contractarians take to be an obvious implication of that starting point ...
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Considers how Hegel could both accept the starting point of social contract theory (the commitment to freedom) and reject what contractarians take to be an obvious implication of that starting point (the social contract theory of political legitimacy). It also explores the alternative account of social and political legitimacy that Hegel draws from the principle of freedom. A major theme of the chapter is the importance that Hegel attaches to the ways in which the major institutions of the modern community work to develop and sustain individual free agency. Hegel's main objection to the social contract theory is that it ignores the function community plays of constituting free individuals. Through an exploration of Hegel's theory of recognition, the chapter shows that Hegel's own alternative theory of political legitimacy involves determining what a community must be like if it is to be successful in fulfilling this function.Less
Considers how Hegel could both accept the starting point of social contract theory (the commitment to freedom) and reject what contractarians take to be an obvious implication of that starting point (the social contract theory of political legitimacy). It also explores the alternative account of social and political legitimacy that Hegel draws from the principle of freedom. A major theme of the chapter is the importance that Hegel attaches to the ways in which the major institutions of the modern community work to develop and sustain individual free agency. Hegel's main objection to the social contract theory is that it ignores the function community plays of constituting free individuals. Through an exploration of Hegel's theory of recognition, the chapter shows that Hegel's own alternative theory of political legitimacy involves determining what a community must be like if it is to be successful in fulfilling this function.
Jennifer J. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474423939
- eISBN:
- 9781474444941
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474423939.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
The American Short Story Cycle spans two centuries to tell the history of a genre that includes major and marginal authors, from Washington Irving through William Faulkner to Jhumpa Lahiri. The short ...
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The American Short Story Cycle spans two centuries to tell the history of a genre that includes major and marginal authors, from Washington Irving through William Faulkner to Jhumpa Lahiri. The short story cycle rose and proliferated because its form compellingly renders the uncertainties that emerge from the twin pillars of modern America culture: individualism and pluralism. Short story cycles reflect how individuals adapt to change, whether it is the railroad coming to the small town in Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio (1919) or social media revolutionizing language in Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010). Each chapter examines how cycles use temporal and spatial settings and characterization to link the stories within. Doing so reveals that authors turn to the cycle when exploring identities—be they gendered or ethnic—in flux and when experimenting with the conventions of narrative unity, from regionalist through modernist to contemporary writers. This book constructs a history of community, family, and time in American culture through one of the nation’s most popular, yet unrecognized genres. Combining new formalism in literary criticism with scholarship in American Studies, this book gives a name and theory to the genre that has fostered the aesthetics of fragmentation, as well as recurrence, that characterize fiction today.Less
The American Short Story Cycle spans two centuries to tell the history of a genre that includes major and marginal authors, from Washington Irving through William Faulkner to Jhumpa Lahiri. The short story cycle rose and proliferated because its form compellingly renders the uncertainties that emerge from the twin pillars of modern America culture: individualism and pluralism. Short story cycles reflect how individuals adapt to change, whether it is the railroad coming to the small town in Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio (1919) or social media revolutionizing language in Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010). Each chapter examines how cycles use temporal and spatial settings and characterization to link the stories within. Doing so reveals that authors turn to the cycle when exploring identities—be they gendered or ethnic—in flux and when experimenting with the conventions of narrative unity, from regionalist through modernist to contemporary writers. This book constructs a history of community, family, and time in American culture through one of the nation’s most popular, yet unrecognized genres. Combining new formalism in literary criticism with scholarship in American Studies, this book gives a name and theory to the genre that has fostered the aesthetics of fragmentation, as well as recurrence, that characterize fiction today.
Jonathan McKenzie
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813166308
- eISBN:
- 9780813166384
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813166308.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This concluding chapter argues that Thoreau’s overall philosophical mission to live a privatist life encompasses the whole of his thought. Through analyses of Thoreau’s natural history writings, ...
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This concluding chapter argues that Thoreau’s overall philosophical mission to live a privatist life encompasses the whole of his thought. Through analyses of Thoreau’s natural history writings, letters, and the events leading to his death, this chapter concludes that Thoreau’s privatism is a viable political theory for nineteenth-century America and beyond. Finally, the chapter concludes that Thoreau’s desire to live “the fullness of life” is possible for him only through the forsaking of political duties.Less
This concluding chapter argues that Thoreau’s overall philosophical mission to live a privatist life encompasses the whole of his thought. Through analyses of Thoreau’s natural history writings, letters, and the events leading to his death, this chapter concludes that Thoreau’s privatism is a viable political theory for nineteenth-century America and beyond. Finally, the chapter concludes that Thoreau’s desire to live “the fullness of life” is possible for him only through the forsaking of political duties.
Neera Chandhoke
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198077978
- eISBN:
- 9780199080977
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198077978.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The second set of moral considerations that bear upon the right of secession relate to the kind of a society that can provide the best context for human beings to live out their lives. Arguably, such ...
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The second set of moral considerations that bear upon the right of secession relate to the kind of a society that can provide the best context for human beings to live out their lives. Arguably, such a context is provided by plural societies. However, just because a society contains a number of groups, each of which subscribes to a distinct conception of the good, it does not follow that the society values plurality. The conceptual distance between descriptive pluralism and normative pluralism has to be bridged through arguments that concentrate on why plurality is a good. It is suggested that plural societies should be valued because they (a) enable the making of worthwhile projects, (b) inculcate the spirit of toleration, and (c) enable dialogue. The argument draws upon Gandhi’s ideas on how human beings should relate to others, who are not like them, to establish the case for pluralism.Less
The second set of moral considerations that bear upon the right of secession relate to the kind of a society that can provide the best context for human beings to live out their lives. Arguably, such a context is provided by plural societies. However, just because a society contains a number of groups, each of which subscribes to a distinct conception of the good, it does not follow that the society values plurality. The conceptual distance between descriptive pluralism and normative pluralism has to be bridged through arguments that concentrate on why plurality is a good. It is suggested that plural societies should be valued because they (a) enable the making of worthwhile projects, (b) inculcate the spirit of toleration, and (c) enable dialogue. The argument draws upon Gandhi’s ideas on how human beings should relate to others, who are not like them, to establish the case for pluralism.
Stephen W. Sawyer
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226544465
- eISBN:
- 9780226544632
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226544632.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
For democratic states, the first part of the twenty-first century brought about an increase of surveillance and a re-emphasis on armed conflict coupled with a neoliberal distance from the concerns of ...
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For democratic states, the first part of the twenty-first century brought about an increase of surveillance and a re-emphasis on armed conflict coupled with a neoliberal distance from the concerns of the populace. To understand these tensions in the state, this book analyses the writings of prominent late nineteenth century French thinkers who responded to emerging forms of democracy with robust, complicated understandings of the democratic institution that recognized its limits and potential as a solution to questions of liberty, dwelled on its ramifications for imperial projects, and attempted to preserve individual freedoms and social equality. Through engagement with these writings, this book accomplishes several things. It situates the development of the modern democratic state in an international dialogue in which the U.S. and France are key constituents, engages with democracy as a historical practice to solve specific problems rather than a pure ideal, and casts discussions of the problems of democracy, power, and equality in a new light. The various chapters of the book, each dedicated to a different problem with democracy recognized by an individual thinker, ultimately articulate American and French contributions to the modern democratic state, identifying the Third Republic (1870-1940) as one such state founded on transnational exchanges and indicative of the principles of the present political order.Less
For democratic states, the first part of the twenty-first century brought about an increase of surveillance and a re-emphasis on armed conflict coupled with a neoliberal distance from the concerns of the populace. To understand these tensions in the state, this book analyses the writings of prominent late nineteenth century French thinkers who responded to emerging forms of democracy with robust, complicated understandings of the democratic institution that recognized its limits and potential as a solution to questions of liberty, dwelled on its ramifications for imperial projects, and attempted to preserve individual freedoms and social equality. Through engagement with these writings, this book accomplishes several things. It situates the development of the modern democratic state in an international dialogue in which the U.S. and France are key constituents, engages with democracy as a historical practice to solve specific problems rather than a pure ideal, and casts discussions of the problems of democracy, power, and equality in a new light. The various chapters of the book, each dedicated to a different problem with democracy recognized by an individual thinker, ultimately articulate American and French contributions to the modern democratic state, identifying the Third Republic (1870-1940) as one such state founded on transnational exchanges and indicative of the principles of the present political order.
Philip Gleason
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195098280
- eISBN:
- 9780197560884
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195098280.003.0017
- Subject:
- Education, History of Education
World War II set the stage for an era of tremendous growth in American higher education, growth in which the Catholic sector shared fully. Between 1940 and ...
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World War II set the stage for an era of tremendous growth in American higher education, growth in which the Catholic sector shared fully. Between 1940 and 1960 the number of Catholic colleges and universities increased by one-fifth (from 193 to 231), faculties grew by about 85 percent (from 13,142 to 24,255), and enrollments almost doubled that percentage, zooming from just under 162,000 to just over 426,000, an increase of 164 percent. Sheer growth was thus the most basic of the institutional developments that took place in this era, but it presented itself more as a series of crises than as a process of continuous accretion. The first crisis, brought on by the wartime draft and the attraction of highpaying jobs in defense industries, imperiled the very existence of the colleges by depleting their pool of potential students. Then came the overwhelming surge of postwar veterans that almost swamped the system. And just as educators were regaining their balance from that onslaught, the outbreak of the Korean War threatened to start the cycle all over again. Korea proved to be a mere dimple compared with World War II, but steady growth did not really begin until 1953.
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World War II set the stage for an era of tremendous growth in American higher education, growth in which the Catholic sector shared fully. Between 1940 and 1960 the number of Catholic colleges and universities increased by one-fifth (from 193 to 231), faculties grew by about 85 percent (from 13,142 to 24,255), and enrollments almost doubled that percentage, zooming from just under 162,000 to just over 426,000, an increase of 164 percent. Sheer growth was thus the most basic of the institutional developments that took place in this era, but it presented itself more as a series of crises than as a process of continuous accretion. The first crisis, brought on by the wartime draft and the attraction of highpaying jobs in defense industries, imperiled the very existence of the colleges by depleting their pool of potential students. Then came the overwhelming surge of postwar veterans that almost swamped the system. And just as educators were regaining their balance from that onslaught, the outbreak of the Korean War threatened to start the cycle all over again. Korea proved to be a mere dimple compared with World War II, but steady growth did not really begin until 1953.
Philip Gleason
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195098280
- eISBN:
- 9780197560884
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195098280.003.0021
- Subject:
- Education, History of Education
The coming together of the racial crisis, bitter internal divisions over the Vietnam War, campus upheavals, political radicalism associated with the New ...
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The coming together of the racial crisis, bitter internal divisions over the Vietnam War, campus upheavals, political radicalism associated with the New Left, the growth of the counterculture, and the emergence of new forms of feminism made the 1960s an epoch of revolutionary change for all Americans. But for American Catholics the profound religious reorientation associated with the Second Vatican Council multiplied the disruptive effect of all the other forces of change. This clashing of the tectonic plates of culture produced nothing less than a spiritual earthquake in the American church. Although the dust has still not fully settled, it was clear from an early date that the old ideological structure of Catholic higher education, which was already under severe strain, had been swept away entirely. As institutions, most Catholic colleges and universities weathered the storm. But institutional survival in the midst of ideological collapse left them uncertain of their identity. That situation still prevails. To explore it fully would require another book. Our task now is to review the emergence of the problem, sketch its general outlines, and point out why it marks the end of an era in the history of Catholic higher education. For a number of reasons, freedom became the central theme in American Catholic higher education in the early 1960s. As the most basic of American values, it was, of course, immensely attractive to the socially assimilated generation of younger Catholics for whom John F. Kennedy’s election and Pope John XXIII’s aggiornamento vindicated the hopes of the earlier Americanists, whose travails Catholic historians had so recently explored. Moreover, the contemporaneous demand by African Americans for “Freedom Now” linked freedom to the religious idealism of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.’s non-violent crusade for civil rights. Freedom was, in addition, the polar opposite of the rigidity, formalism, and authoritarianism that had become so distasteful to American Catholic intellectuals; by contrast, it meshed beautifully with their growing insistence on the importance of individual subjectivity.
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The coming together of the racial crisis, bitter internal divisions over the Vietnam War, campus upheavals, political radicalism associated with the New Left, the growth of the counterculture, and the emergence of new forms of feminism made the 1960s an epoch of revolutionary change for all Americans. But for American Catholics the profound religious reorientation associated with the Second Vatican Council multiplied the disruptive effect of all the other forces of change. This clashing of the tectonic plates of culture produced nothing less than a spiritual earthquake in the American church. Although the dust has still not fully settled, it was clear from an early date that the old ideological structure of Catholic higher education, which was already under severe strain, had been swept away entirely. As institutions, most Catholic colleges and universities weathered the storm. But institutional survival in the midst of ideological collapse left them uncertain of their identity. That situation still prevails. To explore it fully would require another book. Our task now is to review the emergence of the problem, sketch its general outlines, and point out why it marks the end of an era in the history of Catholic higher education. For a number of reasons, freedom became the central theme in American Catholic higher education in the early 1960s. As the most basic of American values, it was, of course, immensely attractive to the socially assimilated generation of younger Catholics for whom John F. Kennedy’s election and Pope John XXIII’s aggiornamento vindicated the hopes of the earlier Americanists, whose travails Catholic historians had so recently explored. Moreover, the contemporaneous demand by African Americans for “Freedom Now” linked freedom to the religious idealism of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.’s non-violent crusade for civil rights. Freedom was, in addition, the polar opposite of the rigidity, formalism, and authoritarianism that had become so distasteful to American Catholic intellectuals; by contrast, it meshed beautifully with their growing insistence on the importance of individual subjectivity.
Rhys S. Bezzant
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199890309
- eISBN:
- 9780199352630
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199890309.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This section highlights the ways in which Edwards’s thought has been misunderstood, with consequences for his understanding of the church. It seeks to redress this imbalance through prosecuting the ...
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This section highlights the ways in which Edwards’s thought has been misunderstood, with consequences for his understanding of the church. It seeks to redress this imbalance through prosecuting the case that it is possible for an evangelist to have a high regard for the church using the theological category of order.Less
This section highlights the ways in which Edwards’s thought has been misunderstood, with consequences for his understanding of the church. It seeks to redress this imbalance through prosecuting the case that it is possible for an evangelist to have a high regard for the church using the theological category of order.
Emma Craddock
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781529205701
- eISBN:
- 9781529205749
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781529205701.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
This chapter explores what motivates and sustains anti-austerity activism within the context of continued austerity. It affirms the centrality of the affective and normative dimensions of political ...
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This chapter explores what motivates and sustains anti-austerity activism within the context of continued austerity. It affirms the centrality of the affective and normative dimensions of political engagement by demonstrating that anti-austerity activism is motivated and sustained by three core elements; emotion, morality and relationship. Individuals are motivated by an emotional response to perceived injustice combined with normative ideals about how society should be and how we should act in relation to others. They utilise notions of humanity and empathy to combat the dehumanising effect of neoliberal capitalism and its focus on individualism and competition. Participants translate such abstract, universal concepts into concrete, particular actions through a focus on everyday activism and individual choices. Rather than an outright rejection of individualism, participants seek to redefine it in ways that move away from the dominant neoliberal understanding and towards reconciling the individual with the wider collective and common good. Here, activism is conceptualised as a moral duty. Participants therefore suggest that everyone and anyone can and should do activism, with small acts making a difference. This chapter begins to unpick the ways in which activists resist, subvert and sometimes unwittingly reinforce neoliberal capitalism, as well as questioning the problematic distinction drawn between ‘non-activist’ and ‘activist’.Less
This chapter explores what motivates and sustains anti-austerity activism within the context of continued austerity. It affirms the centrality of the affective and normative dimensions of political engagement by demonstrating that anti-austerity activism is motivated and sustained by three core elements; emotion, morality and relationship. Individuals are motivated by an emotional response to perceived injustice combined with normative ideals about how society should be and how we should act in relation to others. They utilise notions of humanity and empathy to combat the dehumanising effect of neoliberal capitalism and its focus on individualism and competition. Participants translate such abstract, universal concepts into concrete, particular actions through a focus on everyday activism and individual choices. Rather than an outright rejection of individualism, participants seek to redefine it in ways that move away from the dominant neoliberal understanding and towards reconciling the individual with the wider collective and common good. Here, activism is conceptualised as a moral duty. Participants therefore suggest that everyone and anyone can and should do activism, with small acts making a difference. This chapter begins to unpick the ways in which activists resist, subvert and sometimes unwittingly reinforce neoliberal capitalism, as well as questioning the problematic distinction drawn between ‘non-activist’ and ‘activist’.
