Political Philosophy: What It Is and Why It Matters

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 fulfill their intellectual aspirations.

Author: Ronald Beiner
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 08/11/2014
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9781107680555

Review Citation(s):
Choice 04/01/2015 pg. 1402

About the Author
Beiner, Ronald: - Ronald Beiner is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He is the editor of Hannah Arendt: Lectures on Kant's Political Philosophy (1982) and the author of Political Judgment (1983); What's the Matter with Liberalism? (1992), which was awarded the Canadian Political Science Association's C. B. Macpherson Prize in 1994; Philosophy in a Time of Lost Spirit (1997); Liberalism, Nationalism, Citizenship (2003); and Civil Religion (Cambridge, 2011).