Herbert Gintis
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691160849
- eISBN:
- 9781400851348
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691160849.003.0012
- Subject:
- Sociology, Economic Sociology
This chapter summarizes the book's main points, covering game theory, the commonality of beliefs, the limits of rationality, social norms as correlated equilibria, and how reason is bounded by ...
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This chapter summarizes the book's main points, covering game theory, the commonality of beliefs, the limits of rationality, social norms as correlated equilibria, and how reason is bounded by sociality, not irrationality. Among the conclusions are that game theory is an indispensable tool in modeling human behavior. Behavioral disciplines that reject or peripheralize game theory are theoretically handicapped. The Nash equilibrium is not the appropriate equilibrium concept for social theory. The correlated equilibrium is the appropriate equilibrium concept for a set of rational individuals having common priors. Social norms are correlated equilibria. The behavioral disciplines today have four incompatible models of human behavior. The behavioral sciences must develop a unified model of choice that eliminates these incompatibilities and that can be specialized in different ways to meet the heterogeneous needs of the various disciplines.Less
This chapter summarizes the book's main points, covering game theory, the commonality of beliefs, the limits of rationality, social norms as correlated equilibria, and how reason is bounded by sociality, not irrationality. Among the conclusions are that game theory is an indispensable tool in modeling human behavior. Behavioral disciplines that reject or peripheralize game theory are theoretically handicapped. The Nash equilibrium is not the appropriate equilibrium concept for social theory. The correlated equilibrium is the appropriate equilibrium concept for a set of rational individuals having common priors. Social norms are correlated equilibria. The behavioral disciplines today have four incompatible models of human behavior. The behavioral sciences must develop a unified model of choice that eliminates these incompatibilities and that can be specialized in different ways to meet the heterogeneous needs of the various disciplines.
Derek J. Penslar
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691138879
- eISBN:
- 9781400848577
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691138879.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter focuses on Jewish wartime sensibilities. As Jews began to serve in substantial numbers in the armies of Europe and North America, their patriotic inclinations clashed with their ...
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This chapter focuses on Jewish wartime sensibilities. As Jews began to serve in substantial numbers in the armies of Europe and North America, their patriotic inclinations clashed with their transnational attachments to Jews in the lands against which their country was fighting. This problem first emerged during the revolutions of 1848, when Jews fought both as rebels and as soldiers in the Habsburg armies, and it was the object of considerable discussion in the European-Jewish press. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 was far more traumatic as it sundered the French- and German-Jewish communities, which had long known close business and familial ties. Rabbinic sermons, fiction, and Jewish apologetic literature displayed a powerful transnationalist sensibility, a feeling of Jewish commonality even in times of war. As such, the willingness of Jews to fight each other was heralded as the ultimate proof of worthiness for equal rights.Less
This chapter focuses on Jewish wartime sensibilities. As Jews began to serve in substantial numbers in the armies of Europe and North America, their patriotic inclinations clashed with their transnational attachments to Jews in the lands against which their country was fighting. This problem first emerged during the revolutions of 1848, when Jews fought both as rebels and as soldiers in the Habsburg armies, and it was the object of considerable discussion in the European-Jewish press. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 was far more traumatic as it sundered the French- and German-Jewish communities, which had long known close business and familial ties. Rabbinic sermons, fiction, and Jewish apologetic literature displayed a powerful transnationalist sensibility, a feeling of Jewish commonality even in times of war. As such, the willingness of Jews to fight each other was heralded as the ultimate proof of worthiness for equal rights.
Dan López de Sa
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199234950
- eISBN:
- 9780191715846
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199234950.003.0014
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology, Philosophy of Language
This chapter defends a version of the indexical contextualist form of moderate relativism: the attempt to endorse appearances of faultless disagreement within the framework in which a sentence at a ...
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This chapter defends a version of the indexical contextualist form of moderate relativism: the attempt to endorse appearances of faultless disagreement within the framework in which a sentence at a context at the index of the context determines its appropriate truth-value. Many object that any such an indexical proposal would fail to account for intuitions of (genuine) disagreement as revealed in ordinary disputes in the domain. The defence from this objection exploits presuppositions of commonality to the effect that the addressee is relevantly like the speaker of the context.Less
This chapter defends a version of the indexical contextualist form of moderate relativism: the attempt to endorse appearances of faultless disagreement within the framework in which a sentence at a context at the index of the context determines its appropriate truth-value. Many object that any such an indexical proposal would fail to account for intuitions of (genuine) disagreement as revealed in ordinary disputes in the domain. The defence from this objection exploits presuppositions of commonality to the effect that the addressee is relevantly like the speaker of the context.
Andrew Benjamin
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199545544
- eISBN:
- 9780191720598
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545544.003.0009
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter offers a critical engagement with Derrida's interpretation of Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus. Derrida's work is positioned initially in relation to Heidegger. By focusing on the topics of ...
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This chapter offers a critical engagement with Derrida's interpretation of Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus. Derrida's work is positioned initially in relation to Heidegger. By focusing on the topics of hospitality, law, and justice the chapter argues that Derrida has misconstrued the way in which the state of being ‘outside the law’ or ‘lawless’ (‘anomos’) works in Sophocles' play. By extension this necessitates returning to the way in which the figure of the ‘stranger’ works within the play and therefore with those philosophical positions—such as Deconstruction—in which concepts such as ‘alterity’ are fundamental. This will allow not just for a critique of Derrida but for the subsequent development of the ways in which place and commonality figure within the play and equally within the larger philosophical project delimited by a concern with justice.Less
This chapter offers a critical engagement with Derrida's interpretation of Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus. Derrida's work is positioned initially in relation to Heidegger. By focusing on the topics of hospitality, law, and justice the chapter argues that Derrida has misconstrued the way in which the state of being ‘outside the law’ or ‘lawless’ (‘anomos’) works in Sophocles' play. By extension this necessitates returning to the way in which the figure of the ‘stranger’ works within the play and therefore with those philosophical positions—such as Deconstruction—in which concepts such as ‘alterity’ are fundamental. This will allow not just for a critique of Derrida but for the subsequent development of the ways in which place and commonality figure within the play and equally within the larger philosophical project delimited by a concern with justice.
Jason P. Rosenblatt
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199295937
- eISBN:
- 9780191712210
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199295937.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
Reading Milton's prose chronologically, there is no way to prepare for the differences between the last antiprelatical tract (April 1642) and the first divorce tract (July 1643) — or, for most ...
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Reading Milton's prose chronologically, there is no way to prepare for the differences between the last antiprelatical tract (April 1642) and the first divorce tract (July 1643) — or, for most readers, between Volume 1 and Volume 2 of the Yale edition of Milton's prose. The earlier, antiprelatical treatises are marked by a Pauline absolutism that will not compound with human weakness as an inevitable condition lying within the bounds of divine forgiveness. But beginning with the first divorce tract and extending through the Areopagitica, Milton confronts with compassion a life of mistake and the inseparability of good and evil in this imperfect world. This transformation can be understood in part by a shift in sources: Whereas the antiprelatical tracts apotheosize the spiritual aristocrats of the Reformation who emphasize difference, the divorce tracts draw on natural law theorists such as Hugo Grotius and John Selden, who emphasize commonality.Less
Reading Milton's prose chronologically, there is no way to prepare for the differences between the last antiprelatical tract (April 1642) and the first divorce tract (July 1643) — or, for most readers, between Volume 1 and Volume 2 of the Yale edition of Milton's prose. The earlier, antiprelatical treatises are marked by a Pauline absolutism that will not compound with human weakness as an inevitable condition lying within the bounds of divine forgiveness. But beginning with the first divorce tract and extending through the Areopagitica, Milton confronts with compassion a life of mistake and the inseparability of good and evil in this imperfect world. This transformation can be understood in part by a shift in sources: Whereas the antiprelatical tracts apotheosize the spiritual aristocrats of the Reformation who emphasize difference, the divorce tracts draw on natural law theorists such as Hugo Grotius and John Selden, who emphasize commonality.
Ayelet Ben-Yishai
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199937646
- eISBN:
- 9780199333110
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199937646.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Common Precedents argues that precedent constitutes a sophisticated and powerful mechanism for managing social and cultural change and that this quality accounts for its unacknowledged ...
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Common Precedents argues that precedent constitutes a sophisticated and powerful mechanism for managing social and cultural change and that this quality accounts for its unacknowledged centrality to Victorian culture. Precedential reasoning enables the recognition of the new and its assimilation as part of a continuous past. Through this act of recognition and assimilation, it constructs a sense of a common identity essential to the Victorians. By appearing to bring the past seamlessly into the present, legal precedent became vital to the preservation of a sense of commonality and continuity crucial to the common law and Victorian legal culture, as well as to the society in which it operated and the larger culture of which it was part. These qualities extended the impact of precedent beyond legal practices and institutions to the culture at large. This analysis of law and literature shows that precedential reasoning enjoyed widespread cultural significance in nineteenth-century culture as a means of preserving a sense of common history, values and interests in the face of a new heterogeneous commonality. Understanding the structure of precedent also explains how fictionality works, its epistemology, and how its commonalities are socially constructed, maintained, and reified. Common Precedents thus presents a cultural history of precedent and the ways in which it enables and facilitates a commonality through time.Less
Common Precedents argues that precedent constitutes a sophisticated and powerful mechanism for managing social and cultural change and that this quality accounts for its unacknowledged centrality to Victorian culture. Precedential reasoning enables the recognition of the new and its assimilation as part of a continuous past. Through this act of recognition and assimilation, it constructs a sense of a common identity essential to the Victorians. By appearing to bring the past seamlessly into the present, legal precedent became vital to the preservation of a sense of commonality and continuity crucial to the common law and Victorian legal culture, as well as to the society in which it operated and the larger culture of which it was part. These qualities extended the impact of precedent beyond legal practices and institutions to the culture at large. This analysis of law and literature shows that precedential reasoning enjoyed widespread cultural significance in nineteenth-century culture as a means of preserving a sense of common history, values and interests in the face of a new heterogeneous commonality. Understanding the structure of precedent also explains how fictionality works, its epistemology, and how its commonalities are socially constructed, maintained, and reified. Common Precedents thus presents a cultural history of precedent and the ways in which it enables and facilitates a commonality through time.
Geoffrey L. Greif
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- April 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195326420
- eISBN:
- 9780199893553
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326420.003.0004
- Subject:
- Social Work, Communities and Organizations
This chapter examines how friendships operate and are maintained. Men were asked how they were helped by their friends. Being supported, being listened to, receiving advice, and providing ...
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This chapter examines how friendships operate and are maintained. Men were asked how they were helped by their friends. Being supported, being listened to, receiving advice, and providing companionship were the four most frequently mentioned methods. Men were asked what they did with their friends, and sports, mentioned by 80% of the respondents, was the most common activity. Communicating was second. Finally, men were asked how they made friends with other guys. Finding commonalities, making friends through work, and reaching out and being friendly were the most common approaches. How men lose friends is also discussed.Less
This chapter examines how friendships operate and are maintained. Men were asked how they were helped by their friends. Being supported, being listened to, receiving advice, and providing companionship were the four most frequently mentioned methods. Men were asked what they did with their friends, and sports, mentioned by 80% of the respondents, was the most common activity. Communicating was second. Finally, men were asked how they made friends with other guys. Finding commonalities, making friends through work, and reaching out and being friendly were the most common approaches. How men lose friends is also discussed.
Geoffrey L. Greif
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- April 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195326420
- eISBN:
- 9780199893553
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326420.003.0007
- Subject:
- Social Work, Communities and Organizations
This chapter poses the same question posed to the men to 120 women. Differences do exist between how men and women view friendships though there are also many commonalities. For example, women shop ...
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This chapter poses the same question posed to the men to 120 women. Differences do exist between how men and women view friendships though there are also many commonalities. For example, women shop with their friends; men don't. Women do not watch sports with their friends; men do. Women are more apt to say they have enough friends and to put a higher value on friendships than men. They are also more apt to be supportive and encouraging, and put a higher value on frequent contact with their friends. Women believed their mothers had more friends than the men believed their fathers had. Finally, the fear of appearing homosexual was not discussed as an impediment to same-sex friendships as it was for men.Less
This chapter poses the same question posed to the men to 120 women. Differences do exist between how men and women view friendships though there are also many commonalities. For example, women shop with their friends; men don't. Women do not watch sports with their friends; men do. Women are more apt to say they have enough friends and to put a higher value on friendships than men. They are also more apt to be supportive and encouraging, and put a higher value on frequent contact with their friends. Women believed their mothers had more friends than the men believed their fathers had. Finally, the fear of appearing homosexual was not discussed as an impediment to same-sex friendships as it was for men.
Harris Beider
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781447313953
- eISBN:
- 9781447331094
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447313953.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
The chapter will construct a different narrative on white working class politics related to multiculturalism and change. Commonalities exist with minority communities in terms of class, values and ...
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The chapter will construct a different narrative on white working class politics related to multiculturalism and change. Commonalities exist with minority communities in terms of class, values and space as well as personal interactions such as relationships and marriage, in the context of work or school. White working class communities have also been at the forefront of collective bargaining actions through trade unions and have played a critical role in demonstrating a desire for anti-racism in popular movements such as 2tone. This suggests that white working class communities can be viewed as being inclusive and progressive on multiculturalism. But it must be remembered that polling on immigration has revealed that most social classes in Britain favour of greater restrictions on immigration. The message that needs to be emphasised is that white working class communities should be regarded as being as diverse as any other group in society in response to issues of immigration. There is a need for institutions to reconnect and promote coalitions of interest between different groups at a grassroots level.Less
The chapter will construct a different narrative on white working class politics related to multiculturalism and change. Commonalities exist with minority communities in terms of class, values and space as well as personal interactions such as relationships and marriage, in the context of work or school. White working class communities have also been at the forefront of collective bargaining actions through trade unions and have played a critical role in demonstrating a desire for anti-racism in popular movements such as 2tone. This suggests that white working class communities can be viewed as being inclusive and progressive on multiculturalism. But it must be remembered that polling on immigration has revealed that most social classes in Britain favour of greater restrictions on immigration. The message that needs to be emphasised is that white working class communities should be regarded as being as diverse as any other group in society in response to issues of immigration. There is a need for institutions to reconnect and promote coalitions of interest between different groups at a grassroots level.
Helen Callaghan
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198815020
- eISBN:
- 9780191853517
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198815020.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Corporate Governance and Accountability, Political Economy
When two parties quarrel, the third rejoices, according to a well-known proverb. This book highlights the role of rejoicing “profiteers” in political efforts to expand market-based competition. ...
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When two parties quarrel, the third rejoices, according to a well-known proverb. This book highlights the role of rejoicing “profiteers” in political efforts to expand market-based competition. Marketization appears puzzling if it is conceptualized as a political struggle between the established incumbents and their challengers, or between producers and consumers. Challengers and consumers often lack the resources to overcome barriers to market entry, and collective action problems afflict both groups. Why, then, do incumbents fail to protect their turf? The present book resolves this puzzle by casting light in a new direction, toward those who profit from a contest while remaining above the fray. The rejoicing band of profiteers grows alongside the arena of competition. Once the suppliers of market support services have established themselves on the sidelines of a contest, they accumulate resources that help them expand that arena further. Political struggles surrounding the gradual marketization of corporate control in Britain, Germany, and France from the 1860s onward provide empirical illustration. The book maps and analyzes the path-dependent evolution of support for shareholder rights relating to takeover bids among key interest groups, including managers, creditors, shareholders, and takeover service providers, as well as among political parties. By comparing the self-reinforcing and self-undermining policy feedback of market-enabling and market-restraining rules, it helps explain why market containment is an uphill struggle, while market expansion becomes easier with time.Less
When two parties quarrel, the third rejoices, according to a well-known proverb. This book highlights the role of rejoicing “profiteers” in political efforts to expand market-based competition. Marketization appears puzzling if it is conceptualized as a political struggle between the established incumbents and their challengers, or between producers and consumers. Challengers and consumers often lack the resources to overcome barriers to market entry, and collective action problems afflict both groups. Why, then, do incumbents fail to protect their turf? The present book resolves this puzzle by casting light in a new direction, toward those who profit from a contest while remaining above the fray. The rejoicing band of profiteers grows alongside the arena of competition. Once the suppliers of market support services have established themselves on the sidelines of a contest, they accumulate resources that help them expand that arena further. Political struggles surrounding the gradual marketization of corporate control in Britain, Germany, and France from the 1860s onward provide empirical illustration. The book maps and analyzes the path-dependent evolution of support for shareholder rights relating to takeover bids among key interest groups, including managers, creditors, shareholders, and takeover service providers, as well as among political parties. By comparing the self-reinforcing and self-undermining policy feedback of market-enabling and market-restraining rules, it helps explain why market containment is an uphill struggle, while market expansion becomes easier with time.
Jack Russell Weinstein
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780300162530
- eISBN:
- 9780300163759
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300162530.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
Sympathy is built upon the imagination, which is cultivated by education. This chapter looks at what Smith means by education, giving particular attention to the passive cultural elements that inform ...
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Sympathy is built upon the imagination, which is cultivated by education. This chapter looks at what Smith means by education, giving particular attention to the passive cultural elements that inform self-identity and awareness of others. The chapter first looks at the rational process by which a moral spectator enters into the persona of another, particularly those with whom he or she does not share cultural or political commonalities.Less
Sympathy is built upon the imagination, which is cultivated by education. This chapter looks at what Smith means by education, giving particular attention to the passive cultural elements that inform self-identity and awareness of others. The chapter first looks at the rational process by which a moral spectator enters into the persona of another, particularly those with whom he or she does not share cultural or political commonalities.
Michaele L. Ferguson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199921584
- eISBN:
- 9780199980413
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199921584.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, American Politics
It is frequently assumed that the “people” must have something in common, or else democracy will fail. This assumption that democracy requires commonality – such as a shared nationality, a common ...
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It is frequently assumed that the “people” must have something in common, or else democracy will fail. This assumption that democracy requires commonality – such as a shared nationality, a common culture, or consensus on a core set of values – sets theorists and political actors alike on a futile search for what we have in common, and generates misplaced anxiety when it turns out that this commonality is not forthcoming. Sharing Democracy argues that this preoccupation with commonality misdirects our attention toward what we share and away from how we share in democracy. This produces an ironically anti-democratic tendency to emphasize the passive possession of commonality at the expense of promoting the active exercise of political freedom. This book counteracts this tendency by exposing the reasons for the persistent allure of the common. Sharing Democracy offers in its stead a radical vision of democracy grounded in political freedom: the capacity of ordinary people to make and remake the world in which they live. This vision of democracy is exemplified in protest marches: cacophonous, unpredictable, and self-authorizing collective enactments of our world-building freedom.Less
It is frequently assumed that the “people” must have something in common, or else democracy will fail. This assumption that democracy requires commonality – such as a shared nationality, a common culture, or consensus on a core set of values – sets theorists and political actors alike on a futile search for what we have in common, and generates misplaced anxiety when it turns out that this commonality is not forthcoming. Sharing Democracy argues that this preoccupation with commonality misdirects our attention toward what we share and away from how we share in democracy. This produces an ironically anti-democratic tendency to emphasize the passive possession of commonality at the expense of promoting the active exercise of political freedom. This book counteracts this tendency by exposing the reasons for the persistent allure of the common. Sharing Democracy offers in its stead a radical vision of democracy grounded in political freedom: the capacity of ordinary people to make and remake the world in which they live. This vision of democracy is exemplified in protest marches: cacophonous, unpredictable, and self-authorizing collective enactments of our world-building freedom.
Michael M. Laskier and Yaacov Lev (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780813036496
- eISBN:
- 9780813041810
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813036496.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This book offers a fresh examination of Muslim and Jewish cultural interactions during the medieval and early modern periods. The fifteen interdisciplinary studies assembled here investigate the ...
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This book offers a fresh examination of Muslim and Jewish cultural interactions during the medieval and early modern periods. The fifteen interdisciplinary studies assembled here investigate the complex relationship between these two monotheistic religions and reveal that, with respect to cultural diversity and professional cooperation, Jews and Muslims coexisted relatively peacefully for centuries. As has previously been demonstrated, these relationships would quickly deteriorate in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. That fact often colors our view of early religious, scientific, and cultural interactions between Jews and Muslims. These chapters remind us that this period of free exchange of information fostered important advancements in math, medicine, and the law. Chapters on early Islam and the shaping of Jewish-Muslim relationships in the Middle Ages shed light on the legal battles over the status of synagogues in twentieth-century Yemen or the execution of a fourteen-year-old girl in nineteenth-century Morocco.Less
This book offers a fresh examination of Muslim and Jewish cultural interactions during the medieval and early modern periods. The fifteen interdisciplinary studies assembled here investigate the complex relationship between these two monotheistic religions and reveal that, with respect to cultural diversity and professional cooperation, Jews and Muslims coexisted relatively peacefully for centuries. As has previously been demonstrated, these relationships would quickly deteriorate in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. That fact often colors our view of early religious, scientific, and cultural interactions between Jews and Muslims. These chapters remind us that this period of free exchange of information fostered important advancements in math, medicine, and the law. Chapters on early Islam and the shaping of Jewish-Muslim relationships in the Middle Ages shed light on the legal battles over the status of synagogues in twentieth-century Yemen or the execution of a fourteen-year-old girl in nineteenth-century Morocco.
Michaele L. Ferguson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199921584
- eISBN:
- 9780199980413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199921584.003.0000
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, American Politics
This chapter introduces the problematic of the book via a reading of Western media responses to the Arab Spring. On the one hand, commentators read the protests in terms of commonality: either as ...
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This chapter introduces the problematic of the book via a reading of Western media responses to the Arab Spring. On the one hand, commentators read the protests in terms of commonality: either as evidence that protestors shared a common goal, or as evidence that they lacked the cohesion to sustain democratic institutions. On the other hand, commentators read the protests in terms of political freedom: as expressions of the human capacity to shape the world we share together. These interpretations of the Arab Spring correspond to two different ways of seeing democracy. The first view presumes that democracy requires that the people share something in common. While democratic theorists are predominantly oriented towards commonality, this book will argue instead for emphasizing political freedom. On this latter view, democracy emerges through the interactions between plural persons who do not know whether or what they have in common. The protests in Tahrir Square in 2011 are, therefore, paradigmatic of democracy: the protestors acted together without knowing whether others would join with them, without knowing whether they could agree about their aims, and without knowing whether they would succeed. Yet they acted anyhow, and so expressed their political freedom.Less
This chapter introduces the problematic of the book via a reading of Western media responses to the Arab Spring. On the one hand, commentators read the protests in terms of commonality: either as evidence that protestors shared a common goal, or as evidence that they lacked the cohesion to sustain democratic institutions. On the other hand, commentators read the protests in terms of political freedom: as expressions of the human capacity to shape the world we share together. These interpretations of the Arab Spring correspond to two different ways of seeing democracy. The first view presumes that democracy requires that the people share something in common. While democratic theorists are predominantly oriented towards commonality, this book will argue instead for emphasizing political freedom. On this latter view, democracy emerges through the interactions between plural persons who do not know whether or what they have in common. The protests in Tahrir Square in 2011 are, therefore, paradigmatic of democracy: the protestors acted together without knowing whether others would join with them, without knowing whether they could agree about their aims, and without knowing whether they would succeed. Yet they acted anyhow, and so expressed their political freedom.
Michaele L. Ferguson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199921584
- eISBN:
- 9780199980413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199921584.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, American Politics
This chapter reveals and interrogates the dominant tendency in contemporary democratic theory to presume that some kind of commonality is required in democracy. This claim may at first seem ...
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This chapter reveals and interrogates the dominant tendency in contemporary democratic theory to presume that some kind of commonality is required in democracy. This claim may at first seem counterintuitive: many theorists are quite critical of specific sources of commonality – such as ethnicity and culture. Yet, instead of rejecting commonality as such, they modify the kind of commonality that they believe is essential to democracy. What could explain the persistent allure of commonality to democratic theorists? The chapter argues that theorists continue to insist that democracies need commonality because they believe it is necessary in order to meet three democratic requirements: for a shared identity, affective ties between citizens, and collective agency. Commonality can only work to secure identity, affect, and agency if a number of other corollary assumptions hold true: assumptions about meaning, language, psychology, and politics. In order to shift away from commonality and towards political freedom, these corollaries must be critically examined as well.Less
This chapter reveals and interrogates the dominant tendency in contemporary democratic theory to presume that some kind of commonality is required in democracy. This claim may at first seem counterintuitive: many theorists are quite critical of specific sources of commonality – such as ethnicity and culture. Yet, instead of rejecting commonality as such, they modify the kind of commonality that they believe is essential to democracy. What could explain the persistent allure of commonality to democratic theorists? The chapter argues that theorists continue to insist that democracies need commonality because they believe it is necessary in order to meet three democratic requirements: for a shared identity, affective ties between citizens, and collective agency. Commonality can only work to secure identity, affect, and agency if a number of other corollary assumptions hold true: assumptions about meaning, language, psychology, and politics. In order to shift away from commonality and towards political freedom, these corollaries must be critically examined as well.
Michaele L. Ferguson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199921584
- eISBN:
- 9780199980413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199921584.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, American Politics
This chapter critically examines the belief that commonality gives meaning and coherence to collective identities. The belief that groups only have coherence when their members share some thing in ...
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This chapter critically examines the belief that commonality gives meaning and coherence to collective identities. The belief that groups only have coherence when their members share some thing in common has led feminist theory into the twin dead ends of essentialism and anti-essentialism. Feminism’s example thus serves as a warning for democratic theory that political paralysis results from an insistence on locating the commonality that unites a collective. Drawing on Zerilli’s critique of feminist theory and Anderson’s account of how communities come to be imagined, this chapter develops an alternative account of how collective identities have meaning and coherence. Rather than arising from commonality, the resilience and meaning of identities is a product of active human imagining expressed in a variety of overlapping, competing, and not entirely contiguous intersubjective practices.Less
This chapter critically examines the belief that commonality gives meaning and coherence to collective identities. The belief that groups only have coherence when their members share some thing in common has led feminist theory into the twin dead ends of essentialism and anti-essentialism. Feminism’s example thus serves as a warning for democratic theory that political paralysis results from an insistence on locating the commonality that unites a collective. Drawing on Zerilli’s critique of feminist theory and Anderson’s account of how communities come to be imagined, this chapter develops an alternative account of how collective identities have meaning and coherence. Rather than arising from commonality, the resilience and meaning of identities is a product of active human imagining expressed in a variety of overlapping, competing, and not entirely contiguous intersubjective practices.
Michaele L. Ferguson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199921584
- eISBN:
- 9780199980413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199921584.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, American Politics
This chapter critically examines the belief that commonality generates affective ties between citizens in democracy. That is, democratic theorists often argue that people care more for those who ...
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This chapter critically examines the belief that commonality generates affective ties between citizens in democracy. That is, democratic theorists often argue that people care more for those who share some thing in common with them, and less for those who do not. Through a reading of Robert Putnam, this chapter reveals a tension that pervades thinking about diversity in democracy between this causal belief that commonality produces attachment, and the social constructionist faith that theorists can delineate new forms of commonality that could then produce the desired solidarity. Theorists are reluctant to fully embrace the constructionist view, however, because the causal logic of commonality offers a neat, conceptual solution to two vexing problems: the affective deficit of the modern state, and the challenge of predicting how plural subjects will behave in the future. Yet these are problems that cannot be resolved in a world characterized by plurality. So theorists should more fully embrace the idea that affect is the product of human world-building activity. Insofar as people generate solidarities, rather than are caused by the presence of commonality to feel attachment, solidarity is a matter for which humans can and should take political responsibility.Less
This chapter critically examines the belief that commonality generates affective ties between citizens in democracy. That is, democratic theorists often argue that people care more for those who share some thing in common with them, and less for those who do not. Through a reading of Robert Putnam, this chapter reveals a tension that pervades thinking about diversity in democracy between this causal belief that commonality produces attachment, and the social constructionist faith that theorists can delineate new forms of commonality that could then produce the desired solidarity. Theorists are reluctant to fully embrace the constructionist view, however, because the causal logic of commonality offers a neat, conceptual solution to two vexing problems: the affective deficit of the modern state, and the challenge of predicting how plural subjects will behave in the future. Yet these are problems that cannot be resolved in a world characterized by plurality. So theorists should more fully embrace the idea that affect is the product of human world-building activity. Insofar as people generate solidarities, rather than are caused by the presence of commonality to feel attachment, solidarity is a matter for which humans can and should take political responsibility.
Michaele L. Ferguson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199921584
- eISBN:
- 9780199980413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199921584.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, American Politics
This chapter critically examines the belief that commonality – and common agreement in particular – is necessary to produce collective agency. According to this belief, when citizens disagree and ...
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This chapter critically examines the belief that commonality – and common agreement in particular – is necessary to produce collective agency. According to this belief, when citizens disagree and disidentify with decisions made in their name, democracies are illegitimate and exclusionary. Taylor serves as both an exemplar of this position, and as inspiration for an alternative view of agency. In his democratic writings, he draws on commonality to address the problem of exclusion: if democracies can correctly identify what citizens share, then exclusion can be avoided. This is to conceptualize the people as a “sovereign democratic agency” – as a singular actor located in democratic state institutions. Drawing from his philosophical works, this chapter develops a different understanding of collective agency – “democratic interagency” – that emerges wherever and whenever subjects interact to try to shape the world they inhabit together. This demos is multiple and not tied to any particular institutionalization of democracy. From the perspective of democratic interagency, the problem of exclusion arises when interlocutors disengage or fail to respond. Democratic inclusion, then, arises not through arriving at common agreement, but through proliferating and perpetuating interaction.Less
This chapter critically examines the belief that commonality – and common agreement in particular – is necessary to produce collective agency. According to this belief, when citizens disagree and disidentify with decisions made in their name, democracies are illegitimate and exclusionary. Taylor serves as both an exemplar of this position, and as inspiration for an alternative view of agency. In his democratic writings, he draws on commonality to address the problem of exclusion: if democracies can correctly identify what citizens share, then exclusion can be avoided. This is to conceptualize the people as a “sovereign democratic agency” – as a singular actor located in democratic state institutions. Drawing from his philosophical works, this chapter develops a different understanding of collective agency – “democratic interagency” – that emerges wherever and whenever subjects interact to try to shape the world they inhabit together. This demos is multiple and not tied to any particular institutionalization of democracy. From the perspective of democratic interagency, the problem of exclusion arises when interlocutors disengage or fail to respond. Democratic inclusion, then, arises not through arriving at common agreement, but through proliferating and perpetuating interaction.
Michaele L. Ferguson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199921584
- eISBN:
- 9780199980413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199921584.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, American Politics
This chapter argues that it would be insufficient for theorists to adopt the view that commonality is the product of human activity. Democratic theory requires shifting from an orientation to ...
More
This chapter argues that it would be insufficient for theorists to adopt the view that commonality is the product of human activity. Democratic theory requires shifting from an orientation to locating commonalities, to one of expressing and encouraging political freedom. Even where the commonality in question is one that actors understand as the product of their activity, a reading of the 2006 U.S. immigrant rights protests shows that the orientation towards commonality generates antidemocratic pressures to sacrifice political freedom for the sake of shared goals. While feminists and others have argued for coalition as an imaginary of democracy, coalition politics does not move theory beyond a preoccupation with commonality. In its place, this chapter offers protests as paradigmatic of a democratic action. Protests are cacophonous, multivocal, and unpredictable. They exemplify “democracy sense”: the awareness that people inhabit the world together with plural others who all possess the capacity for world-building. Protests, therefore, are self-authorizing expressions of political freedom that embrace the uncertainty, unpredictability, and risk of acting together with others to try to shape a common world.Less
This chapter argues that it would be insufficient for theorists to adopt the view that commonality is the product of human activity. Democratic theory requires shifting from an orientation to locating commonalities, to one of expressing and encouraging political freedom. Even where the commonality in question is one that actors understand as the product of their activity, a reading of the 2006 U.S. immigrant rights protests shows that the orientation towards commonality generates antidemocratic pressures to sacrifice political freedom for the sake of shared goals. While feminists and others have argued for coalition as an imaginary of democracy, coalition politics does not move theory beyond a preoccupation with commonality. In its place, this chapter offers protests as paradigmatic of a democratic action. Protests are cacophonous, multivocal, and unpredictable. They exemplify “democracy sense”: the awareness that people inhabit the world together with plural others who all possess the capacity for world-building. Protests, therefore, are self-authorizing expressions of political freedom that embrace the uncertainty, unpredictability, and risk of acting together with others to try to shape a common world.
Simon Lewis
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813036021
- eISBN:
- 9780813038636
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813036021.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
African identities have been written and rewritten about in both British and African literature for decades. These revisions have opened up new formulations of what it really means to be British or ...
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African identities have been written and rewritten about in both British and African literature for decades. These revisions have opened up new formulations of what it really means to be British or African. By comparing texts by authors from African and British backgrounds across a wide variety of political orientations, the book analyzes the deeper relationships between colonizer and colonized. It brings issues of race, gender, class, and sexuality into the analysis, providing new ways for cultural scholars to think about how empire and colony have impacted one another from the late eighteenth century through the decades following World War II. In these comparisons, the book focuses on commonalities rather than differences. By examining the work of writers including Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, T. S. Eliot, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Zoe Wicomb, Yvette Christianse, and Chris van Wyk, the book demonstrates how Britain's former African colonies influence British culture just as much as African culture was influenced by British colonization. The book brings a uniquely informed perspective to the topic, having lived in South Africa, Tanzania, and Great Britain, and having taught African literature for over a decade. The book demonstrates expert knowledge of local cultural history from 1945 to the present, in both Africa and Britain.Less
African identities have been written and rewritten about in both British and African literature for decades. These revisions have opened up new formulations of what it really means to be British or African. By comparing texts by authors from African and British backgrounds across a wide variety of political orientations, the book analyzes the deeper relationships between colonizer and colonized. It brings issues of race, gender, class, and sexuality into the analysis, providing new ways for cultural scholars to think about how empire and colony have impacted one another from the late eighteenth century through the decades following World War II. In these comparisons, the book focuses on commonalities rather than differences. By examining the work of writers including Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, T. S. Eliot, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Zoe Wicomb, Yvette Christianse, and Chris van Wyk, the book demonstrates how Britain's former African colonies influence British culture just as much as African culture was influenced by British colonization. The book brings a uniquely informed perspective to the topic, having lived in South Africa, Tanzania, and Great Britain, and having taught African literature for over a decade. The book demonstrates expert knowledge of local cultural history from 1945 to the present, in both Africa and Britain.
