Political Philosophy: What It Is And Why It Matters
Cambridge University Press, 10/16/2014
EAN 9781107680555, ISBN10: 1107680557
Paperback, 304 pages, 22.6 x 15 x 1.8 cm
Language: English
What is political philosophy? Ronald Beiner makes the case that it is centrally defined by supremely ambitious reflection on the ends of life. We pursue this reflection by exposing ourselves to, and participating in, a perennial dialogue among epic theorists who articulate grand visions of what constitutes the authentic good for human beings. Who are these epic theorists, and what are their strengths and weaknesses? Beiner selects a dozen leading candidates: Arendt, Oakeshott, Strauss, Löwith, Voegelin, Weil, Gadamer, Habermas, Foucault, MacIntyre, Rawls, and Rorty. In each case, he shows both why the political philosophies continue to be intellectually compelling and why they are problematic or can be challenged in various ways. In this sense, Political Philosophy attempts to draw up a balance sheet for political philosophy in the twentieth century, by identifying a canon of towering contributions and reviewing the extent to which they fulfil their intellectual aspirations.
1. First prologue
horizons of political reflection
2. Second prologue
Freud, Weber, and political philosophy
3. Hannah Arendt
the performativity of politics
4. Michael Oakeshott
life's adventure
5. Leo Strauss
the politics of philosophy
6. Karl Löwith
in awe of the cosmos
7. Excursus on nature and history in the Strauss–Löwith correspondence
8. Eric Voegelin
modernity's vortex
9. Simone Weil
the politics of the soul
10. Hans-Georg Gadamer
philosophy without hubris
11. Jürgen Habermas
politics as rational discourse
12. Michel Foucault's carceral society
13. Alasdair MacIntyre
fragmentation and wholeness
14. Short excursus on the rise and decline of communitarianism as a political philosophy
15. John Rawls and the death of political philosophy
16. Richard Rorty
knocking philosophy off its pedestal
or, the death of political philosophy postmodernized
17. Epilogue
on not throwing in the towel.