Social Philosophy Books - Page 14

Man

Arnold Gehlen

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Modern Crisis

Murray Bookchin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Creative but restrictive 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

The essays from Bookchin, a key figure in Green philosophy and propounder of Social Ecology as a rival to Deep Ecology, are a mixed lot to say the least. The essay dealing with the replacement of capitalism's culture of egoism with the participatory practices of communitarianism is worthwhile if not exactly original. The essay on Social Ecology however is disappointing since, on close examination, it never really gets beyond a hollow rhetorical stage in laying out what should be the book's centerpiece.

The essay on market economy vs. moral economy is the compilation's strongest. Generally, Bookchin's skillful rhetoric manages to vividly contrast the misanthropy of market economy with the humanism of moral economy, laying bare the ultimate cost of placing greed before need. However - and this is an important reservation - the author's framework of commercial transaction within moral economy fails to penetrate beyond the medieval emphasis on honest dealing. Replacing market gouging with honest dealing is thin gruel indeed after some four centuries of failure. The problem with Bookchin's analysis is not his enemies. It's the recourses he offers. The dehumanizing cash nexus of market economy is a problem indeed, but the author's retreat into moral admonition represents little more than wishful thinking. Reliance on honest, profitable dealings constitutes a step backward, not forward, and likely represents the absence of genuine alternatives to planned economy and the real possibilities of modern technology which Bookchin too often appears to equate with its corrosive capitalist offspring, viz. mass marketing.

Bookchin represents much that is both creative and restrictive among the contemporary social left.

Transformative Learning for a New Worldview: Learning to Think Differently

M. G. Jackson

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Editorial Review:

Transformative learning is a process in which we question all the assumptions about the world and ourselves that make up our worldview, visualize alternative assumptions, and then test them in practice. The author describes the process, offering a critique of contemporary assumptions, and suggests alternatives to illustrate the process. The primary focus of the book is on transformative learning in mainstream global culture, but the special problems and opportunities for people of post-colonial societies are also dealt with. Practical suggestions for conducting transformative learning exercises are given.

The American Replacement of Nature

William Irwin Thompson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Fun As Hell To Read! 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

An other reviewer mentioned Chomsky. The truth is, Thompson is a brilliant cultural critic/mythopoeic sociologist/poet observer but he is not superior to Chomsky if what you desire is a clearheaded and real world analysis of the forces and powers that are shaping our world. Chomsky is coming from the Enlightenment and Humanist traditions and knows exactly where his knowledge ends and continually informs the reader as to why he is saying what he is saying (he makes himself as transparent as possible). Thompson, by contrast, does the exact opposite. He entertainingly composes poetic banners of thought that are dense with aphoristic insight and cutting philo-historic observations. This is the only book of Thompson's that I've thus far read but I would like to read at least one more. He has a cool style and makes many points that intrigue or promote pondering. This book may best be described as a cross between thoughtful new age and pop philosophy.

Fun As Hell To Read! 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

An other reviewer mentioned Chomsky. The truth is, Thompson is a brilliant cultural critic/mythopoeic sociologist/poet observer but he is not superior to Chomsky if what you desire is a clearheaded and real world analysis of the forces and powers that are shaping our world. Chomsky is coming from the Enlightenment and Humanist traditions and knows exactly where his knowledge ends and continually informs the reader as to why he is saying what he is saying (he makes himself as transparent as possible). Thompson, by contrast, does the exact opposite. He entertainingly composes poetic banners of thought that are dense with aphoristic insight and cutting philo-historic observations. This is the only book of Thompson's that I've thus far read but I would like to read at least one more. He has a cool style and makes many points that intrigue or promote pondering. This book may best be described as a cross between thoughtful new age and pop philosophy.

Social and Political Philosophy (Paragon Issues in Philosophy)

William L. McBride

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Beyond Separateness: The Social Nature Of Human Beings--their Autonomy, Knowledge, And Power

Richard Schmitt

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Editorial Review:

Two very different views of persons permeate our thinking. On the one hand, we are impressed by the many social influences that affect us all. On the other hand, we also demand autonomy and individual rights. We have, at present, no suitable vocabulary for giving their due both to our social nature and to the ways in which we are distinct from one another.In this ambitious and original book, Richard Schmitt criticizes the assumption that human beings are separate from one another—an assumption that underlies much of mainstream Anglo-American philosophy. Instead he proposes, following two decades of work by feminist theorists, that we consider ourselves as being-in-relation. A large part of the book is dedicated to clarifying these two competing views of persons. In the course of this effort the author examines different conceptions of autonomy, empathy, love, knowing, and power.From these discussions emerges a view of persons that illuminates the ways in which each of us is distinct from others and at the same time does justice to our participation in social networks. Schmitt shows that persons have considerable choice over whether to be separate or in-relation. The controversy between these two views is not primarily theoretical but about practice—specifically, political practice.

The Logic of the Gift: Toward an Ethic of Generosity

Alan Schrift

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

An excellent companion volume 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

An excellent compilation of the necessary and relevant texts on the concept of the gift, texts which would be difficult to acquire anywhere else without considerable expense. Seminal American, German and French texts are included. If you are working on the theme of the gift in any discipline, this book is a must have. For continental philosopy, it also makes an excellent companion to J. Derrida's Given Time, a book that frequently refers to many of the texts included in Schrift's volume. Superb choices and editing. The only lack here is G. Bataille, but it is nearly impossible to excerpt from his work - The Accursed Share, vols 1-3, as well as his book on Religion, are highly recommended reading in addition to Schrift's handy compendium.

Editorial Review:

The theme of the gift can be located at the center of current discussions of deconstruction, gender and feminist theory, ethics, philosophy, anthropology, and economics: it is, simply, one of the primary focal points at which contemporary interdisciplinary discourses intersect. Into this context comes a new, indispensable volume. The Logic of the Gift offers several important essays on gifts and gift-giving that are often referred to but seldom read, and adds to them new essays written esepcially for this collection.

The list of contributors includes Emerson ("Gifts," from Essays and Lectures); Helene Cixous ("Castration or Decapitation"); Marshall Sahlins ("The Spirit of the Gift," from Stone Age Economics (1972)); Pierre Bourdieu, on Mauss and the gift; Gayatri Chakrovarty Spivak; Jacques Derrida; and Allan Stoekl on George Bataille.

Crisis and Repetition: Essays on Art and Culture

Kate Armstrong

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Social and Political Philosophy

John Arthur, William H. Shaw

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Editorial Review:

This anthology presents classical and contemporary readings on the major issues in social and political philosophy -- obligation, democracy, rights, freedom, equality, justice,

Published Essays: 1940-1952 (Collected Works of Eric Voegelin, Volume 10)

Eric Voegelin

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Editorial Review:

Published Essays, 1940-1952, includes some of Eric Voegelin's most provocative and interesting essays. Containing his first publications after he fled Austria and settled in the United States as Hitler rose to power, this volume provides eyewitness commentary on the rise of National Socialism from the first days of World War II onward. A major study entitled "Growth of the Race Idea" presents a masterful summary of the two volumes on that subject Voegelin first published in 1933. A related essay of wide interest is entitled "Nietzsche, the Crisis, and the War". Another facet of Voegelin's thought incorporated within this volume of the Essays is his extraordinary analyses of the diplomatic correspondence conducted between the Western powers, the papacy, and the Great Khans, whose breathtaking expansion of the Mongol Empire for a time threatened to extinguish Western civilization itself and resulted in a two-century domination of Russia. Another major study is "The Origins of Scientism", an illuminating analysis of the grounds of much of modern philosophy and of all modern political ideologies. There are also surveys of the state of political theory in the late forties, penetrating studies of utopian thought with essays on Thomas More and Goethe, and a concluding essay that explores the intricacies of "Gnostic Politics" -- a familiar theme from Voegelin's contemporaneous New Science of Politics. This volume of published essays shows Eric Voegelin at his most accessible best.