Patriotism and other mistakes
George Kateb has been one of the most respected and influential political theorists of the last quarter century. His work stands apart from that of many of his contemporaries and resists easy summary. In these essays, Kateb often admonishes himself, in Socratic fashion, to keep political argument as far as possible negative: to be willing to assert what we are not, and what we will not do, and to build modestly from there some account of what we are and what we ought to do. Drawing attention to the non-rational character of many motives that drive people to construct and maintain a political order, he urges greater vigilance in political life and cautions against 'mistakes' not usually acknowledged as such. Patriotism is one such mistake, too often resulting in terrible brutality and injustices. He asks us to consider how commitments to ideals of religion, nation, race, ethnicity, manliness, and courage find themselves in the service of immoral ends, and he exhorts us to remember the dignity of the individual. The book is divided into three sections. In the first, Kateb discusses the expansion of state power (including such topics as surveillance) and the justifications for war recently made by American policy makers. The second section offers essays in moral psychology, and the third comprises fresh interpretations of major thinkers in the tradition of political thought, from Socrates to Arendt
1 online resource (xxxv, 422 pages)
9780300138054, 9786611728793, 0300138059, 6611728791
173818550
Cover13;
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I Liberty and the American Constitution
1 Is Patriotism a Mistake?
2 Notes on Pluralism
3 Undermining the Constitution
4 A Life of Fear
5 On Being Watched and Known
Part II Politics, Aesthetics, and Morality
6 Aestheticism and Morality: Their Cooperation and Hostility
7 The Judgment of Arendt
8 Courage as a Virtue
9 Technology and Philosophy
Part III The Adequacy of the Canon
10 Socratic Integrity
11 Wildness and Conscience: Thoreau and Emerson
12 Prohibition and Transgression
13 Hobbes and the Irrationality of Politics
14 Ideology and Storytelling
15 Can Cultures Be Judged?: Two Defenses of Cultural Pluralism in Isaiah Berlins Work
16 The Adequacy of the Canon
Index
Electronic reproduction, [Place of publication not identified], HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010
English
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