Politics and the Search for the Common Good - Hardcover

Sluga, Hans

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1107068460 ISBN 13: 9781107068469

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2014

Synopsis

Rethinking politics in a new vocabulary, Hans Sluga challenges the firmly held assumption that there exists a single common good which politics is meant to realize. He argues that politics is not a natural but a historical phenomenon, and not a single thing but a multiplicity of political forms and values only loosely related. He contrasts two traditions in political philosophy: a 'normative theorizing' that extends from Plato to John Rawls and a newer 'diagnostic practice' that emerged with Marx and Nietzsche and has found its three most prominent twentieth-century practitioners in Carl Schmitt, Hannah Arendt, and Michel Foucault. He then examines the sources of diagnostic political thinking, analyzes its achievements, and offers a critical assessment of its limitations. His important book will be of interest to a wide range of upper-level students and scholars in political philosophy, political theory, and the history of ideas.

About this title

Review:

'The current standing of politics and politicians is low, citizens are disaffected and disengaged, and much writing on politics is empty and abstract. In this important new study Hans Sluga reflects on the nature of politics, and how we might reach a better understanding of it as 'the care of the common'. It is a compelling read.' Andrew Gamble, University of Cambridge

Book Description:

Providing an original analysis and assessment of the political thought of Carl Schmitt, Hannah Arendt, and Michel Foucault, this book rethinks politics in a new vocabulary. It is of great interest to upper-level students and scholars of political philosophy, political theory, history of ideas, and political science.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1107068460
• ISBN 13: 9781107068469
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272