Book picks similar to
The Malaise of Modernity by Charles Taylor
philosophy
politics
modernity
non-fiction
A Darwinian Left: Politics, Evolution and Cooperation
Peter Singer - 2000
He shows how the insights of modern evolutionary theory, particularly on the evolution of cooperation, can help the left attain its social and political goals.Singer explains why the left originally rejected Darwinian thought and why these reasons are no longer viable. He discusses how twentieth-century thinking has transformed our understanding of Darwinian evolution, showing that it is compatible with cooperation as well as competition, and that the left can draw on this modern understanding to foster cooperation for socially desirable ends. A Darwinian left, says Singer, would still be on the side of the weak, poor, and oppressed, but it would have a better understanding of what social and economic changes would really work to benefit them. It would also work toward a higher moral status for nonhuman animals and a less anthropocentric view of our dominance over nature.
A World Split Apart: Commencement Address Delivered At Harvard University, June 8, 1978
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - 1978
Lectures on the History of Political Philosophy
John Rawls - 2007
Offers readers an account of the liberal political tradition from a scholar viewed by many as the greatest contemporary exponent of the philosophy behind that tradition.
Colonialism and Neocolonialism
Jean-Paul Sartre - 1965
It is not true that there are some good colonists and others who are wicked. There are colonists and that is it'Jean-Paul Sartre
An Intellectual History of Liberalism
Pierre Manent - 1987
For Manent, a discussion of liberalism encompasses the foundations of modern society, its secularism, its individualism, and its conception of rights. The frequent incapacity of the morally neutral, democratic state to further social causes, he argues, derives from the liberal stance that political life does not serve a higher purpose. Through quick-moving, highly synthetic essays, he explores the development of liberal thinking in terms of a single theme: the decline of theological politics.The author traces the liberal stance to Machiavelli, who, in seeking to divorce everyday life from the pervasive influence of the Catholic church, separated politics from all notions of a cosmological order. What followed, as Manent demonstrates in his analyses of Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau, Guizot, and Constant, was the evolving concept of an individual with no goals outside the confines of the self and a state with no purpose but to prevent individuals from dominating one another. Weighing both the positive and negative effects of such a political arrangement, Manent raises important questions about the fundamental political issues of the day, among them the possibility of individual rights being reconciled with the necessary demands of political organization, and the desirability of a government system neutral about religion but not about public morals.
Against the State: An Anarcho-Capitalist Manifesto
Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr. - 2014
The cure is a radical one because, as the book incontrovertibly shows, the many problems that confront us today are no accident. They stem from the nature of government itself. Only peaceful cooperation based on the free market can rescue us from our present plight.Against the State is written by Lew Rockwell, the founder of the Mises Institute and LewRockwell.com, and the closest friend and associate of Murray Rothbard, the leading theorist of anarcho-capitalism. Rockwell applies Rothbard’s combination of individualist anarchism and Austrian economics to contemporary America. The book shows how the government is based on war, both against foreign nations and against the American people themselves, through massive invasions of our liberties. Fueled by an out-of-control banking system, the American State has become in essence fascist. We cannot escape our predicament through limited government: the government is incapable of controlling itself. Only a purely private social order can save us, and Rockwell succinctly sets out how an anarcho-capitalist order would work.
Strangers to Ourselves
Julia Kristeva - 1988
She discusses the foreigner in Greek tragedy, in the Bible, and in the literature of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Enlightenment, and the twentieth century. She discusses the legal status of foreigners throughout history, gaining perspective on our own civilization. Her insights into the problems of nationality, particularly in France, are more timely and relevant in an increasingly integrated and fractious world.
The Ideas Industry: How Pessimists, Partisans, and Plutocrats Are Transforming the Marketplace of Ideas.
Daniel W. Drezner - 2017
Writing in venues like the New Republic and Commentary, such intellectuals were always expected to opine on a broad array of topics, from foreign policy to literature to economics. Yet in recent years a new kind of thinker has supplanted that archetype: the thought leader. Equipped with one big idea, thought leaders focus their energies on TED talks rather than highbrow periodicals. How did this shift happen? In The Ideas Industry, Daniel W. Drezner points to the roles of political polarization, heightened inequality, and eroding trust in authority as ushering in the change. In contrast to public intellectuals, thought leaders gain fame as single-idea merchants. Their ideas are often laudable and highly ambitious: ending global poverty by 2025, for example. But instead of a class composed of university professors and freelance intellectuals debating in highbrow magazines, thought leaders often work through institutions that are closed to the public. They are more immune to criticism--and in this century, the criticism of public intellectuals also counts for less.Three equally important factors that have reshaped the world of ideas have been waning trust in expertise, increasing political polarization and plutocracy. The erosion of trust has lowered the barriers to entry in the marketplace of ideas. Thought leaders don't need doctorates or fellowships to advance their arguments. Polarization is hardly a new phenomenon in the world of ideas, but in contrast to their predecessors, today's intellectuals are more likely to enjoy the support of ideologically friendly private funders and be housed in ideologically-driven think tanks. Increasing inequality as a key driver of this shift: more than ever before, contemporary plutocrats fund intellectuals and idea factories that generate arguments that align with their own. But, while there are certainly some downsides to the contemporary ideas industry, Drezner argues that it is very good at broadcasting ideas widely and reaching large audiences of people hungry for new thinking. Both fair-minded and trenchant, The Ideas Industry will reshape our understanding of contemporary public intellectual life in America and the West.
The No-Nonsense Guide to Globalization
Wayne Ellwood - 2001
From the richest country to the poorest, every aspect of life is affected by global economics and communications. We all benefit...or do we?This No-Nonsense Guide to Globalization distills the arguments into a clear, concise commentary. It examines the debt trap, the acceleration of neo-liberalism and the “free trade” model, competition for energy resources, and the links between the war on terror, the arms trade, and privatization. It looks at civil society alternatives to corporate globalization and the latest trade justice initiatives.
Machiavelli Mindset: How To Conquer Your Enemies, Achieve Audacious Goals & Live Without Limits From The Prince (Psychological Warfare, The Prince, Mindset)
R. Shaw - 2016
Here's A Preview Of What Machiavelli Mindset Contains... An Introduction to Machiavelli Seeing the World through Machiavelli’s Eyes Getting Over The Guilt Moving Above And Beyond Conventional Thinking Machiavelli's Thoughts On Generosity Compassion Vs. Cruelty (Is It Better To Be Loved Or Feared?) What Machiavelli Says About Honesty How To Achieve Success The Machiavellian Way The Qualities Of A Great Leader How to Avoid Attracting Hatred and Other Lessons from the Prince And Much, Much More!
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Trump and the American Future
Newt Gingrich - 2020
Will the American people choose four more years of President Trump to lead us back to strong economic growth, a foreign and trade policy of putting American interests first, dismantling the deep state, and dramatically reforming the bureaucracies? Or will they reject Trumpism and elect the radical Democratic policies of big government, globalism, and socialist policies that Joe Biden represents? Not since the election of 1964 has the choice in an election been so stark.Trump and the American Future by Newt Gingrich will lay out the stakes of the 2020 election and provide a clarion call for all Americans on why it is vital to return President Trump to the White House for a second term. Featuring insights gleaned from the lifetime of experience and access only Newt Gingrich can bring, Trump and the American Future will be crucial reading for every citizen who wants to continue to make America great again.
The Socialist Challenge Today
Leo Panitch - 2018
The social democratic embrace of neoliberal globalisation now lies threadbare amid multiple economic, ecological, and migration crises. Political institutions have been undermined: both national parties and the European Union. These developments have opened political space for the far right, with its ultra-nationalist, racist, sexist and homophobic agendas. Yet it has also restored some credibility to the socialist case for transcending capitalism as necessary to realise the collective, democratic, egalitarian and ecological aspirations of humanity. Amidst a significant shift from protest to politics on the contemporary left, Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin focus on some key recent moments, providing essential historical, theoretical and critical perspective for understanding the potential as well as the limits of: the Sanders electoral insurgency in the USA, the Syriza experience in Greece, and Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party in Britain. Presenting a powerful and inspirational argument for transcending earlier social democratic and communist practices, Panitch and Gindin stress the need for renewing working-class politics through new kinds of socialist parties. Most important, they insist, will be to foster the development of strategic and practical capacities to democratically transform state structures - so as to render them fit for realising collective democracy, social equality, sustainable ecology and human solidarity. This is the central challenge for socialists today.
I Am Roe: My Life, Roe V. Wade, and Freedom of Choice
Norma McCorvey - 1994
Wade case shares the fascinating and highly controversial story of her struggle to obtain a legal abortion 20 years ago and what has happened to her since. "A powerful and important American document".--New York Times.
The Paradox of American Power: Why the World's Only Superpower Can't Go It Alone
Joseph S. Nye Jr. - 2001
Yet, as has become all too evident through the terrorist attacks of September 11th and the impending threat of the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran, that power isnot enough to solve global problems--like terrorism, environmental degradation, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction--without involving other nations. Here Joseph S. Nye, Jr. focuses on the rise of these and other new challenges and explains clearly why America must adopt a morecooperative engagement with the rest of the world.
Short Breaks in Mordor: Dawns and Departures of a Scribbler's Life
Peter Hitchens - 2014
A compendium of in-depth reports from all over the world, including Iran, North Korea, Bhutan, Japan, Pakistan, Israel, Africa Turkey and China.