- Table View
- List View
The Limits of Critique
by Rita FelskiWhy must critics unmask and demystify literary works? Why do they believe that language is always withholding some truth, that the critic's task is to reveal the unsaid or repressed? In this book, Rita Felski examines critique, the dominant form of interpretation in literary studies, and situates it as but one method among many, a method with strong allure--but also definite limits. Felski argues that critique is a sensibility best captured by Paul Ricoeur's phrase "the hermeneutics of suspicion. " She shows how this suspicion toward texts forecloses many potential readings while providing no guarantee of rigorous or radical thought. Instead, she suggests, literary scholars should try what she calls "postcritical reading": rather than looking behind a text for hidden causes and motives, literary scholars should place themselves in front of it and reflect on what it suggests and makes possible. By bringing critique down to earth and exploring new modes of interpretation, The Limits of Critique offers a fresh approach to the relationship between artistic works and the social world.
Limits of Democracy: From the June 2013 Uprisings in Brazil to the Bolsonaro Government
by Marcos NobreIn this timely book, Brazilian political philosopher Marcos Nobre analyzes the social and political roots of the election of Jair Bolsonaro to the presidency of Brazil and shows how this process is connected to the rise of new far-right movements threatening democracy around the world. Nobre describes the rise of the movement that elected Bolsonaro as a reactionary and anti-democratic highjack of the democratic impulse unleashed by the June 2013 uprisings, when millions of Brazilians took to the streets to protest against a dysfunctional political system, and frames the Brazilian case within the global crisis that exposed the limits of a democracy based on the neoliberal consensus after the 2008 financial crisis. According to Nobre, the June 2013 uprisings in Brazil was part of the global cycle of popular protests that swept many countries between 2011 and 2013, reclaiming a new model of democracy which could go beyond bureaucratic and technocratic parties and cabinets. However, in Brazil, as in many other places, this initial democratic impulse was captured by new far-right movements which are now posing serious threats to democracy. This book intends to collaborate in a change of attitude, both theoretical and practical, that may help finding ways of fighting the authoritarian threat to democracy as well as of deepening democracy as a life form. The decline of neoliberalism not only did not produce any effectively progressive realist alternative, but also opened the way for a dispute over models of society in which democracy itself has ceased to represent the primary reference in disputes over the best way to regulate life in society. Democracy is no longer self-evident, it is in danger. And the only way to save it is by inventing new democratic practices to overcome the limits imposed by institutional political systems no longer capable of channeling the real struggles in the societies they claim to represent.
The Limits of Epistemology
by Markus GabrielAt the centre of modern epistemology lurks the problem of scepticism: how can we know that the forms of our cognition are compatible with the world? How can we state success conditions for knowledge claims without somehow transcending our discursive and fallible nature as knowers? By distinguishing different forms of scepticism, Markus Gabriel shows how all objective knowledge relies on shared discourses and how the essential corrigibility of knowledge claims is a crucial condition of their objectivity. We should understand scepticism not so much as posing a threat, but as offering a vital lesson about the fallibility of discursive thinking. By heeding this lesson, we can begin to reintegrate the solipsistic subject of modern epistemology back into the community of actual knowers. Taking his cue from Hegel, Wittgenstein and Brandom, Gabriel shows how intentionality as such is a public rather than a private phenomenon. He concedes that the sceptic can prove the necessary finitude of objective knowledge, but denies that this has to lead us into an aporia. Instead, it shows us the limits of the modern project of epistemology. Through an examination of different kinds of sceptical paradoxes, Gabriel not only demonstrates their indispensable role within epistemological theorising, but also argues for the necessary failure of all totalizing knowledge claims. In this way, epistemology, as the discipline that claims knowledge about knowledge, begins to grasp its own fallibility and, as a result, the true nature of its objectivity. The Limits of Epistemology will be of great value to students and scholars of philosophy.
The Limits of History
by Constantin FasoltHistory casts a spell on our minds more powerful than science or religion. It does not root us in the past at all. It rather flatters us with the belief in our ability to recreate the world in our image. It is a form of self-assertion that brooks no opposition or dissent and shelters us from the experience of time. So argues Constantin Fasolt in The Limits of History, an ambitious and pathbreaking study that conquers history's power by carrying the fight into the center of its domain. Fasolt considers the work of Hermann Conring (1606-81) and Bartolus of Sassoferrato (1313/14-57), two antipodes in early modern battles over the principles of European thought and action that ended with the triumph of historical consciousness. Proceeding according to the rules of normal historical analysis—gathering evidence, putting it in context, and analyzing its meaning—Fasolt uncovers limits that no kind of history can cross. He concludes that history is a ritual designed to maintain the modern faith in the autonomy of states and individuals. God wants it, the old crusaders would have said. The truth, Fasolt insists, only begins where that illusion ends. With its probing look at the ideological underpinnings of historical practice, The Limits of History demonstrates that history presupposes highly political assumptions about free will, responsibility, and the relationship between the past and the present. A work of both intellectual history and historiography, it will prove invaluable to students of historical method, philosophy, political theory, and early modern European culture.
Limits of Intelligibility: Issues from Kant and Wittgenstein
by Jens PierThe essays in this volume investigate the question of where, and in what sense, the bounds of intelligible thought, knowledge, and speech are to be drawn. Is there a way in which we are limited in what we think, know, and say? And if so, does this mean that we are constrained – that there is something beyond the ken of human intelligibility of which we fall short? Or is there another way to think about these limits of intelligibility—namely as conditions of our meaning and knowing anything, beyond which there is no specifiable thing we cannot do? These issues feature prominently in the writings of Kant and Wittgenstein who each engaged with them in unique and striking ways. Their thoughts on the matter remain provocative and stimulating, and accordingly the contributions to this volume address the issues surrounding the limits of intelligibility both exegetically and systematically: they examine how they figure in Kant’s and Wittgenstein’s most significant works and put them in touch with contemporary debates that are shaped by their legacy. These debates concern, inter alia, logically and morally alien thought, the semantics and philosophy of negation, disjunctivism in philosophy of perception and ethics, paraconsistent approaches to contradiction, and the relation between art, literature, and philosophy. The book is divided into four parts: Part I gives a first assessment of the issues, Part II examines limits as they feature in Kant, Part III as they feature in Wittgenstein, and Part IV suggests some ways in which the questions might be reconsidered, drawing upon ideas in phenomenology, dialetheism, metamathematics, and the works of other influential authors. Limits of Intelligibility provides insight into a theme that is central to the thought of two of the most important figures in modern philosophy, as well as to recent metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophy of logic, epistemology, and ethics.
The Limits of Law and Development: Neoliberalism, Governance and Social Justice (Law, Development and Globalization)
by Sam Adelman Abdul PaliwalaThe book examines the well-established field of ‘law and development’ and asks whether the concept of development and discourses on law and development have outlived their usefulness.The contributors ask whether instead of these amorphous and contested concepts we should focus upon social injustices such as patriarchy, impoverishment, human rights violations, the exploitation of indigenous peoples, and global heating? If we abandoned the idea of development, would we end up adopting another, equally problematic term to replace a concept which, for all its flaws, serves as a commonly understood shorthand? The contributors analyse the links between conventional academic approaches to law and development, neoliberal governance and activism through historical and contemporary case studies.The book will be of interest to students and scholars of development, international law, international economic law, governance and politics and international relations.
The Limits of Liberal Multiculturalism: Towards an Individuated Approach to Cultural Diversity (Palgrave Studies in Ethics and Public Policy)
by Annamari VitikainenThe Limits of Liberal Multiculturalism provides a timely analysis of some of the weaknesses, as well as the successes, of the liberal multicultural project. It also takes a step forward by developing a pluralist, individual-centred approach to allocating minority rights in practice.
The Limits of Logic: Higher-Order Logic and the Löwenheim-Skolem Theorem (The International Research Library of Philosophy #18)
by Stewart ShapiroThe International research Library of Philosophy collects in book form a wide range of important and influential essays in philosophy, drawn predominantly from English-language journals. Each volume in the library deals with a field of enquiry which has received significant attention in philosophy in the last 25 years and is edited by a philosopher noted in that field.
The Limits of Medical Paternalism (Social Ethics and Policy)
by Heta HäyryThe Limits of Medical Paternalism defines and morally assesses paternalistic interventions, especially in the context of modern medicine and health care, particular emphasis is given to the analysis of the conceptual background of the paternalism issue. In this book an anti-paternalistic view is presented and defended.
The Limits of Moral Obligation: Moral Demandingness and Ought Implies Can (Routledge Studies in Ethics and Moral Theory)
by Marcel Van Ackeren Michael KühlerThis volume responds to the growing interest in finding explanations for why moral claims may lose their validity based on what they ask of their addressees. Two main ideas relate to that question: the moral demandingness objection and the principle "ought implies can." Though both of these ideas can be understood to provide an answer to the same question, they have usually been discussed separately in the philosophical literature. The aim of this collection is to provide a focused and comprehensive discussion of these two ideas and the ways in which they relate to one another, and to take a closer look at the consequences for the limits of moral normativity in general. Chapters engage with contemporary discussions surrounding "ought implies can" as well as current debates on moral demandingness, and argue that applying the moral demandingness objection to the entire range of normative ethical theories also calls for an analysis of its (metaethical) presuppositions. The contributions to this volume are at the leading edge of ethical theory, and have implications for moral theorists, philosophers of action, and those working in metaethics, theoretical ethics and applied ethics.
The Limits of Parental Authority: Childhood Wellbeing as a Social Good (Routledge Annals of Bioethics)
by Johan C. BesterThis book offers a novel theory of childhood well-being as a social good. It re-examines our fundamental assumptions about parenting, parental authority, and a liberal society’s role in the raising of children. The author defends the idea that the good of a child is inexorably linked to the good of society. He identifies and critiques the problematic assumption that parenting is an extension of individual liberty and shows how we run into problems in medical decision-making for children because of this assumption. He develops an objective conception of what is good for a child in a liberal society, drawing on the assumptions of liberty, and from here constructs a set of things that society and its members owe children. There are ways in which society should support and intervene in parental decisions to guarantee a child’s well-being. Ultimately, raising children is a social activity that requires input from society. The author then applies this theory of childhood well-being to develop a framework for medical decision-making for children. He also uses practical examples, such as vaccinations, parental leave, and healthcare access, to demonstrate the implications of his theory for public policy. The Limits of Parental Authority: Childhood Wellbeing as a Social Good will be of interest to practitioners, scholars, and advanced students working in bioethics, political philosophy, and public health policy.
The Limits of Science: Outline of Logic and of the Methodology of the Exact Sciences (International Library of Philosophy)
by Leon ChwistekThis is Volume III of eight in a series on the Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics. Originally published in 1948, this book portrays an outline of logic and of the methodology of the exact sciences.
The Limits of State Action
by Wilhelm Von HumboldtThe grand, leading principle, towards which every argument . . . unfolded in these pages directly converges, is the absolute and essential importance of human development in its richest diversity. This description by Wilhelm von Humboldt of his purpose in writing The Limits of State Action animates John Stuart Mill's On Liberty and serves as its famous epigraph. Seldom has a book spoken so dramatically to another writer. Many commentators even believe that Humboldt's discussion of issues of freedom and individual responsibility possesses greater clarity and directness than Mill's. The Limits of State Action, by "Germany's greatest philosopher of freedom," as F. A. Hayek called him, has an exuberance and attention to principle that make it a valuable introduction to classical liberal political thought. It is also crucial for an understanding of liberalism as it developed in Europe at the turn of the nineteenth century. Humboldt explores the role that liberty plays in individual development, discusses criteria for permitting the state to limit individual actions, and suggests ways of confining the state to its proper bounds. In so doing, he uniquely combines the ancient concern for human excellence and the modern concern for what has come to be known as negative liberty. J. W. Burrow is Professor of History at the University of Sussex.
The Limits of State Action
by Wilhelm Von Humboldt J. W. BurrowThe Limits of State Action has an exuberance and attention to principle that make it a valuable introduction to classical liberal political thought It is also crucial for an understanding of liberalism as it developed in Europe at the turn of nineteenth century. Humboldt explores the role that liberty plays in individual development, discusses criteria for permitting the state to limit individual action's and suggests ways of confining the state to its proper bounds.
The Limits of Technology and the End of History: Marx and Beyond
by Yefim KatsThis book examines the long-standing belief in infinite scientific and technological progress and links it to the Enlightenment ideal of man as a universal being and subject of the universal world history, destined to become a 'master and possessor of nature.' The author analyzes a broad range of issues in epistemology, the philosophy of history, and the philosophy of science and technology. Marx’s philosophy is explored to the extent that his dialectic of labor sheds light on Western technological optimism and the ideal of human universality and offers an elaborate framework for analyzing the intrinsic limits to technological progress. The focus is on his ‘early’ works, providing a theoretical and humanistic underbelly for the ‘mature’ ideas of the Capital. Examining the epistemic foundations of the belief in infinite progress, the author argues that actual infinity, either in the form of unbounded technological/scientific expansion or infinite complexity of nature, is redundant for the universality of man, his scientific pursuit and historical experience. The conundrum of universality and power calls for a systematic critique of instrumental reason, its practical applicability and value structure.
Limits of the Secular
by Kaustuv RoyThis book facilitates a missing dialogue between the secular and the transsecular dimensions of human existence. It explores two kinds of limits of the secular: the inadequacies of its assumptions with respect to the total being of the human, and how it curbs the ontological sensibilities of the human. Kaustuv Roy argues that since secular reason of modernity can only represent the empirical dimension of existence, humans are forced to privatize the non-empirical dimension of being. It is therefore absent from the social, imaginary, as well as public discourse. This one-sidedness is the root cause of many of the ills facing modernity. Roy contends that a bridge-consciousness that praxeologically relates the secular and the non-secular domains of experience is the need of the hour.
The Limits of Thought: Discussions between J. Krishnamurti and David Bohm
by J. Krishnamurti David BohmThe Limits of Thought is a series of penetrating dialogues between the great spiritual leader, J. Krishnamurti and the renowned physicist, David Bohm.The starting point of their engaging exchange is the question: If truth is something different than reality, then what place has action in daily life in relation to truth and reality? We see Bohm and Krishnamurti explore the nature of consciousness and the condition of humanity. These enlightening dialogues address issues of truth, desire awareness, tradition, and love.Limits of Thought is an important book by two very respected and important thinkers. Anyone interested to see how Krishnamurti and Bohm probe some of the most essential questions of our very existence will be drawn to this great work.
The Limits of Tolerance: Enlightenment Values and Religious Fanaticism (Religion, Culture, and Public Life #4)
by Denis LacorneThe modern notion of tolerance—the welcoming of diversity as a force for the common good—emerged in the Enlightenment in the wake of centuries of religious wars. First elaborated by philosophers such as John Locke and Voltaire, religious tolerance gradually gained ground in Europe and North America. But with the resurgence of fanaticism and terrorism, religious tolerance is increasingly being challenged by frightened publics.In this book, Denis Lacorne traces the emergence of the modern notion of religious tolerance in order to rethink how we should respond to its contemporary tensions. In a wide-ranging argument that spans the Ottoman Empire, the Venetian republic, and recent controversies such as France’s burqa ban and the white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, The Limits of Tolerance probes crucial questions: Should we impose limits on freedom of expression in the name of human dignity or decency? Should we accept religious symbols in the public square? Can we tolerate the intolerant? While acknowledging that tolerance can never be entirely without limits, Lacorne defends the Enlightenment concept against recent attempts to circumscribe it, arguing that without it a pluralistic society cannot survive. Awarded the Prix Montyon by the Académie Française, The Limits of Tolerance is a powerful reflection on twenty-first-century democracy’s most fundamental challenges.
The Limits to Capital
by David HarveyThe Limits to Capital provides one of the best theoretical guides to the history and geography of capitalist development. In this new edition, Harvey updates his classic text with a substantial discussion of the turmoil in world markets today.In his analyses of ‘fictitious capital’ and ‘uneven geographical development’ Harvey takes the reader step by step through layers of crisis formation, beginning with Marx’s controversial argument concerning the falling rate of profit, moving through crises of credit and finance, and closing with a timely analysis geopolitical and geographical considerations.
L'impresa rigenerativa
by Ethan Roland Gregory Landua L. PiperoIl presente libro è “l’eccedenza intellettuale” e il capitale di esperienza di una sana e vibrante comunità di pratica. Non è stato scritto da due persone, ma è il risultato di anni di conversazione tra imprenditori, azionisti, agricoltori, ideatori di permacolture e investitori appassionati e intelligenti, persone che vogliono cambiare il mondo e che lavorano ogni giorno per sanare le relazioni tra la nostra società umana, smemorata e sconnessa, e la terra nutrice.
Lincoln in the World
by Kevin PerainoA captivating look at how Abraham Lincoln evolved into one of our seminal foreign-policy presidents--and helped point the way to America's rise to world power. This is the story of one of the most breathtaking feats in the annals of American foreign policy--performed by one of the most unlikely figures. Abraham Lincoln is not often remembered as a great foreign-policy president. He had never traveled overseas and spoke no foreign languages. And yet, during the Civil War, Lincoln and his team skillfully managed to stare down the Continent's great powers--deftly avoiding European intervention on the side of the Confederacy. In the process, the United States emerged as a world power in its own right. Engaging, insightful, and highly original, Lincoln in the World is a tale set at the intersection of personal character and national power. The narrative focuses tightly on five distinct, intensely human conflicts that helped define Lincoln's approach to foreign affairs--from his debate, as a young congressman, with his law partner over the conduct of the Mexican War, to his deadlock with Napoleon III over the French occupation of Mexico. Bursting with colorful characters like Lincoln's bowie-knife-wielding minister to Russia, Cassius Marcellus Clay; the cunning French empress, Eugénie; and the hapless Mexican monarch Maximilian--Lincoln in the World draws a finely wrought portrait of a president and his team at the dawn of American power. In the Age of Lincoln, we see shadows of our own world. The international arena in the 1860s could be a merciless moral vacuum. Lincoln's times demanded the cold, realistic pursuit of national interest, and, in important ways, resembled our own increasingly multipolar world. And yet, like ours, Lincoln's era was also an information age, a period of rapid globalization. Steamships, telegraph wires, and proliferating new media were transforming the world. Global influence required the use of "soft power" as well as hard. Anchored by meticulous research into overlooked archives, Lincoln in the World reveals the sixteenth president to be one of America's indispensable diplomats--and a key architect of America's emergence as a global superpower. Much has been written about how Lincoln saved the Union, but Lincoln in the World highlights the lesser-known--yet equally vital--role he played on the world stage during those tumultuous years of war and division.
Lincoln & Liberty: Wisdom for the Ages
by Lucas E. MorelEssays exploring the sixteenth president&’s political philosophy. Generations of Americans have studied Abraham Lincoln&’s life, presidency, and leadership, often remaking him into a figure suited to the needs and interests of their own time. This illuminating volume takes a different approach to his political thought and practice. Here, a distinguished group of contributors argue that Lincoln&’s relevance today is best expressed by rendering an accurate portrait of him in his own era. They seek to understand Lincoln as he understood himself and as he attempted to make his ideas clear to his contemporaries. What emerges is a portrait of a prudent leader who is driven to return the country to its original principles in order to conserve it. The contributors demonstrate that, far from advocating an expansion of government beyond its constitutional limits, Lincoln defended both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. In his introduction, Justice Clarence Thomas discusses how Lincoln used the ideological and structural underpinnings of those founding documents to defeat slavery and secure the liberties that the Republic was established to protect. Other chapters reveal how Lincoln upheld the principle of limited government even as he employed unprecedented war powers. Featuring contributions from leading scholars such as Michael Burlingame, Allen C. Guelzo, Fred Kaplan, and Matthew Pinsker, this innovative collection presents fresh perspectives on Lincoln both as a political thinker and a practical politician. Taken together, these essays decisively demonstrate that the most iconic American president still has much to teach the modern-day student of politics.
Lincoln's Political Thought
by George KatebAt the center of Lincoln's political thought and career is an intense passion for equality that runs so deep in the speeches, messages, and letters that it has the force of religious conviction for Lincoln. George Kateb examines these writings to reveal that this passion explains Lincoln's reverence for both the Constitution and the Union.
Lincoln's Rise to Eloquence: How He Gained the Presidential Nomination
by D. Leigh HensonAt turns eloquent and earthy, Abraham Lincoln’s rhetoric played a vital role in his success as a politician and statesman. D. Leigh Henson examines Lincoln’s pre-presidential development as a rhetorician, the purposes and methods behind his speeches and writings, and how the works contributed to his political rise. Lincoln’s close study of the rhetorical process drew on sources that ranged from classical writings to foundational American documents to the speeches of Daniel Webster. As Henson shows, Lincoln applied his learning to combine arguments on historical, legal, and moral grounds with appeals to emotion and his own carefully curated credibility. Henson also explores Lincoln’s use of the elements of structural design to craft coherent arguments that, whatever their varying purposes, used direct and plain language to reach diverse audiences--and laid the groundwork for his rise to the White House. Insightful and revealing, Lincoln’s Rise to Eloquence follows Lincoln from his early career through the years-long clashes with Stephen A. Douglas to trace the future president’s evolution as a communicator and politician.
Lincoln's Tragic Pragmatism: Lincoln, Douglas, and Moral Conflict
by John BurtA New York Times Book Review Editors’ ChoiceIn 1858, challenger Abraham Lincoln debated incumbent Stephen Douglas seven times in the race for a U.S. Senate seat from Illinois. More was at stake than slavery in those debates. In Lincoln’s Tragic Pragmatism, John Burt contends that the very legitimacy of democratic governance was on the line. In a United States stubbornly divided over ethical issues, the overarching question posed by the Lincoln-Douglas debates has not lost its urgency: Can a liberal political system be used to mediate moral disputes? And if it cannot, is violence inevitable?“John Burt has written a work that every serious student of Lincoln will have to read...Burt refracts Lincoln through the philosophy of Kant, Rawls and contemporary liberal political theory. His is very much a Lincoln for our time.”—Steven B. Smith, New York Times Book Review“I'm making space on my overstuffed shelves for Lincoln’s Tragic Pragmatism. This is a book I expect to be picking up and thumbing through for years to come.”—Jim Cullen, History News Network“Burt treats the [Lincoln-Douglas] debates as being far more significant than an election contest between two candidates. The debates represent profound statements of political philosophy and speak to the continuing challenges the U.S. faces in resolving divisive moral conflicts.”—E. C. Sands, Choice