Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

In this volume an unusual array of elite scholars addresses the role of values in understanding terrorism and forming policies for responses to it. Their essays, which appear here for the first time, have significance in the fears and concerns of the moment but the enduring values they espouse extend far beyond terrorism. Contributors include Akeel Bilgrami, M. Cherif Bassiouni, Martha Crenshaw, Tom Farer, Marilyn Friedman, Amos Guiora, Bruce Hoffman, Martha Nussbaum, Frank Salter, and Amartya Sen. "This is a remarkable collection of many of the best minds pondering the terrorist threat. . . . The international community needs to do much better than we have been doing; here is the intellectual platform for doing so." Michael W. Doyle Harold Brown Professor of International Affairs, Law and Political Science, Columbia University "Seven years after 9/11, policymakers are still struggling to understand the dynamics that produce terrorism in ways that help them craft better approaches for confronting the challenge of political violence. In Values and Violence, some of America ˜s and the world's top scholars come together to provide a state-of-the-art assessment of these issues. I know of no other single volume that brings together this much talent to try to help the world understand the sources of the scourge of terrorism and, thereby, to help us understand how to contain it." Philip Gordon Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution, Washington D.C. "If you want a broad and sophisticated inter-disciplinary approach to terrorism to understand the role of values both in forming terrorist activity and in responding to its challenges, this reader is for you." Shahram Chubin Director of Studies, Geneva Centre for Security Policy

Political philosophy. Social philosophy

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

In Democracy in an Age of Globalisation, Otfried Höffe develops a comprehensive analysis of the demands, which the process of globalization exerts on the political organisations of humanity. The author starts from a diagnosis of the process of globalisation and frees its concept from its economistic narrowing: Globalisation is a comprehensive process which puts new strains on the economies and political systems of the world, the cultural and social structures of peoples. The scope of its challenges demands solutions, which transcend the powers of the classical nation-state. The question central to the book can be formulated as follows: "How can the social, moral and legal achievements of the nation-state be retained while its structure is reshaped to satisfy the requirements of a globalised world?" "Against grass-roots communitarianism as well as against highbrow globalism, the author chooses the realisation of a multilevel world republic that plays the role of an instance of negotiation and settlement. He respects cultural particularities and national characters, while observing at the same time the commandments of the world social contract that governs the relations between the states and their citizens." Ludger Heidebrink, Die Zeit "'Democracy ¦' is a cautious precision-work. It is a bold, though carefully arguing book that does not deal with less than the legitimacy and the main characteristics of a future world republic. [ ¦] Höffe's extraordinary book represents a significant contribution to the most important questions asked by the beginning of the new century that is characterised by ˜globalisation'." Georg Kohler, NZZ

Political philosophy. Social philosophy --- Politics --- politieke wetenschappen

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The interest contiguity theory,  which is the book's centerpiece, holds that rather than a smooth, one-way cruise through history, humankind's journey from the inception to the present has brought him/her face to face with broadly three types of interests. The first is the individual interest, which, strange as it may sound, tends to be internally contradictory. The second is society's (or national ) interest which, due to the clash of wills, is even more difficult than personal interest to harmonize. The third is the interest espoused to justify the establishment and maintenance of supranational institutions. Though conflicting, some interests are, due to their relative closeness (or contiguity), more easily reconcilable than others.   In tracing the links between and among the three broad types of interests, the book begins with a brief philosophical discussion and then proceeds to examine the implications of human knowledge for individual liberty.  Against the backdrop of the epistemological and ontological questions raised in the first chapter, the book examines the contending  perspectives on the theory of the state, and in particular, the circumstances under which it is justified to place the interest of society over that of the individual.  The focus of the fourth chapter is on the insertion of the supranational governance constant in the sovereignty equation, and on the conflict between idealist and realist, and between both and the Kantian explanations for the new order. The adequacy or otherwise of the conflicting explanations of the change from anarchy to a ˜new world order' is the subject taken up in the succeeding chapters.  Besides suggesting a new analytical tool for the study of politics and international relations, the contiguity theory offers statespersons new lenses with which to capture the seismic, perplexing and sometimes disconcerting changes unfolding before their eyes.  

Philosophy --- Political philosophy. Social philosophy --- Politics --- politieke wetenschappen --- filosofie

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

In recent years there has thus been a great deal of talk about a possible death of art. As the title of Heidegger's "The Origin of the Work of Art" suggests, the essay challenges such talk, just as it in turn is challenged by such talk, talk that is supported by the current state of the art-world. It was Hegel, who most profoundly argued that the shape of our modern world no longer permits us to grant art the significance it once possessed. Hegel's proclamation of the end of art in its highest sense shadows this commentary, as it shadows Heidegger's essay. Heidegger's problematic turn from the philosopher Hegel to the poet Hölderlin is born of the conviction that we must not allow Hegel to here have the last word. At stake is the future of art. But more importantly, if we are to accept Heidegger's argument, at stake is the future of humanity. But all who are eager to find in Heidegger's essay pointers concerning where not just art, but we should be heading, should be made wary by Heidegger's politicizing of art and aestheticizing of politics. Both remain temptations that demand a critical response. This commentary demonstrates the continued relevance of Heidegger's reflections.

Philosophy --- Political philosophy. Social philosophy --- Aesthetics --- aesthetics --- esthetica --- filosofie --- existentialisme

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The initial idea for this anthology arose during my work at the interdisciplinary Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 485 Norm and Symbol at the University of Konstanz. My research project on the potential of Hobbesian contract theory was in?uenced by the focus of the SFB on social phenomena such as pluralism and cultural change. In this context, I realized that the Hobbesian idea to refer only to instrumental rationality and basic egoistic interests to legitimize a state has, on one hand some advantages for pluralistic societies: All individuals are supposed to share these premises independent of the personal values they might hold. On the other hand, a rational legitimization must cope with the fundamental problem of explaining and legitimizing those tasks of legal states that go beyond the idea of a minimal state. Although my research was focused on the idea of solving this problem with a modi?cation of the Hobbesian argument, I became interested in the more general question of which role morality could or should play in legitimizing a state. Within the current discussion, not only rational but also political accounts of legitimacy can be attractive as soon as they try to avoid contentious normative premises. To analyse some of the core ideas within the current discussion, I - ganized an interdisciplinary workshop at the University of Konstanz in December 2004 in which different perspectives from sociology, politics and philosophy were compared and analysed.

Philosophy --- Political philosophy. Social philosophy --- General ethics --- ethiek --- filosofie