Jacques Maritain, one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century, was a preeminent interpreter of the thought of Thomas Aquinas and author of more than 50 books in metaphysics, the philosophy of science, aesthetics and social and political philosophy. A giant in his field, he combined his Catholic faith and wide-ranging intellect to ......
Pragmatism, the philosophy native to America, has grown to prominence in philosophical debate around the world. The type of pragmatism that is proving to be of great value for fostering discussions with other worldviews is pragmatic naturalism. This collection of essays is written by philosophers who describe themselves as pragmatic naturalists.
This work is intended as a contribution to our understanding of modernism and postmodernism. It explores the formation and deformation of the cultural sphere and the effects on culture of globalization. Against many orthodox postmodernist accounts, the author argues that it is wrong to regard our present state of fragmentation and dislocation as an epochal break. Existing interdependencies and power balances are not so easily broken down. Nonetheless, some important cultural changes have occurred since the last war. In particular, the book examines some of the processes which have uncoupled culture from the social; the erosion of the ideal of the heroic life in the face of the onslaught from consumerism and the deformation of culture; and the rise of new forms of identity development. It explains why culture has gained a more significant role in everyday life and also why it has come to preoccupy the Academy in recent years. The text covers the effects of the multiplication of cultural goods and images on our ability to read culture and develop fixed meanings and relationships. It highlights the importance of the global in attempting to cope with the objective difficulties of cultural overproduction. The book concludes that the rise of non-western nation states with different cultural frames produces different reactions of modernity, making it more appropriate to refer to global modernities.
Recasting the Dialogue between Genealogy and Critical Theory
The contributors to this volume extend, expound and explain the key areas of social theory debated between Foucault and Habermas: the meaning of modernity; the function of reason; and the importance of political freedom. They provide detailed discussion and definition of difficult themes in each theorist's work, reframing the issues and defining the context of the debate. They also explore the theoretical and conceptual methods used and discuss the implications for politics and criticism.
Hans Blumenberg's account of the transition of the world from medieval to modern, given in his 1966 work The Legitimacy of the Modern Age, has received wide attention. Elizabeth Brient begins her own account of the transition with an extensive, critical assessment of aspects of Blumenberg's work.
An introduction to the notion of intersubjectivity as a central concern of philosophy, sociology, psychology and politics. The main purpose of this volume is to provide a coherent framework for this concept against which the various and contrasting debates can be more clearly understood. Beyond this, the author provides a critical discussion of intersubjectivity as an interdisciplinary concept to shed light on our understanding of selfhood, communication, citizenship, power and community. The author traces the contributions of many key thinkers engaged with the intersubjectivist tradition, including Husserl, Buber, Kojeve, Merleau-Pony, Mead, Wittgenstein, Schutz and Habermas.
In this volume Christopher Dawson outlines his main thesis for the history of culture, which was his life's work. Anthropology, sociology, philosophy, religion and history form the backdrop for the key idea of his thought - namely, that religion is the soul of a culture and that a society or culture which has lost its spiritual roots is a dying ......
This collection originated in the centenary celebration of the School of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America. Written by experts in their fields, the essays are intended to provide a unique overview of philosophical developments in the 20th century. The first set of essays deals with philosophy in the English-speaking world. Thomas R. ......
In present-day societies, knowledge is not only the key to the world, but the making of the world. In this broad-ranging analysis of the central role that knowledge plays in our life Nico Stehr critically examines the premises of existing social theory and explores the knowledge relations in advanced societies. The result is i significant new synthesis of social theory. The issues addressed in "Knowledge Societies" include: the process of scientization - the penetration of scientific knowledge not only into production but into most spheres of social action; the transformation of the political system by increasingly knowledgeable citizens; the rise of specific areas of expertise and changes in corresponding institutions based on the deployment of specialised knowledge; a shift in the nature of societal conflict from struggles about the allocation of income and property to claims and conflict about generalized human needs; the emergence of fragility as a basic attribute of modem social organizations. The author does not argue that the transformations of contemporary societies around knowledge lead to any unilinear pattern of change, or to universal shifts to the advantage of specific social groups. But his argument amply demonstrates that all social theories now need to take account of the changing nature of social relations around knowledge, and defines the parameters within which this analysis should take place. This book will be essential reading for all those interested in social theory, sociology of knowledge and science, and the whole issue of knowledge in the late twentieth century,
