The soul of justice : social bonds and racial hubris / Cynthia Willett.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Willett, Cynthia, 1956-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social justice.

Liberalism.

Individualism.

African Americans--Race identity.

African Americans.

African Americans--Social conditions.

Physical Description:

x, 241 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Ithaca : Cornell University Press, [2001]

Summary:

Cynthia Willett brings together diverse insights from social psychology, classical and contemporary literature, and legal and justice theory to redefine the basis of the moral and legal person. Feminists, communitarians, and postmodern thinkers have made clear that classical liberalism, with its emphasis on individual autonomy and excessive rationalism, is severely limited. Although Willett is sympathetic to the liberal view, she finds it necessary to go further. For her, attention to the social dimensions of the family and civil society is critical. Interdependency, not autonomy, is of increasing significance in an era of globalization.

Contents:

Prologue: Eros and Hubris: Social Justice in Old and New World Settings 1

Part I A Marriage of Autonomy and Care

1 The Ethics of Care and Its Limits 31

2 Hidden Narratives and Discourse Ethics 45

3 Joining Together Reason and Care 65

4 The Outsider Within: A Model of the Citizen as Worker and Friend 80

Part II A Dialectic of Eros and Freedom

5 The Erotic Soul of Existential Marxism: Marcuse 101

6 This Poem That Is My Body: Irigaray 123

Part III A Discourse of Love, A Practice of Freedom

7 The Mother Wit of Justice: Eros and Hubris in the African-American Context 157

8 The Genealogy of Freedom in Slave America: Frederick Douglass 188

9 Narratives of Hubris, Songs of Love: Toni Morrison's Beloved 203

Down Here in Paradise: A Coda 227.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0801438918

0801487153

OCLC:

47776672