Reconstituting social criticism : political morality in an age of scepticism / edited by Iain MacKenzie and Shane O'Neill.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Mackenzie, Iain, 1969-

O'Neill, Shane, 1965-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social problems.

Social ethics.

Social justice.

Political ethics.

Physical Description:

ix, 217 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire [England] : Macmillan Press ; New York, N.Y. : St. Martin's Press, 1999.

Summary:

In the context of a new global order where the logic of the market reigns virtually unopposed, there is a clear need for original thinking that might reinvigorate a progressive political project. We need to find a convincing set of normative standards that can animate political action and direct us towards a just order. This collection of essay assesses the prospects for reconstituting a vibrant intellectual forum that will facilitate theoretical perspectives that have emerged in response to this crisis of philosophically inspired criticism. The volume gathers together, in a mutually enriching dialogue, critical agendas that have been built on the insights of egalitarians, socialists, critical theorists, poststructuralists, and theorists of psychoanalysis and hermeneutics.

Contents:

1. Introduction: Reconstituting Criticism Today / Shane O'Neill 1

I Normative Foundations

2. Defending Universalism / Simon Caney 19

3. Digging up Marx / Keith Graham 35

4. Studying Equality / John Baker 51

II Contesting Boundaries

5. Deconstruction and Criticism / Aletta J. Norval 67

6. The Critical Force of Fictive Theory: Jameson, Foucault and Woolf / Jon Simons 83

7. Reconstituting the Subject of Political Discourse: from Lacan to Castoriadis / Caroline Williams 103

III The Moral Basis of Criticism

8. Philosophy, Contingency and Social Criticism / Nicholas H. Smith 123

9. A Different Kind of Contract / Norman Geras 137

IV Social Conflict and the Possibility of Reconciliation

10. Liberalism and the Challenge of Pluralism / Richard Bellamy 153

11. Are Ethical Conflicts Irreconcilable? / Maeve Cooke 171

12. Two Conceptions of Cosmopolitan Justice / Thomas McCarthy 191.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0312217420

OCLC:

39523524