Critical humanism and the politics of difference / Jeff Noonan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Noonan, Jeff.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Difference (Philosophy)--Political aspects.

Difference (Philosophy).

Humanism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (200 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Noonan shows that at the core of postmodern philosophy, with its claim that culture creates humans, is a concern to dethrone the modern understanding of human beings as subjects, as builders of their world and free when those world-building activities are the outcome of free choices. He explains that because the postmodern conception of human being does not capture what is universal in all humans it is incapable of critically responding to the forcible subordination of different cultures to European "humanity." When oppressed groups explain why they struggle against oppression, they invoke just that idea of human being as subjectivity that postmodern philosophy claims is the basis of oppression. Noonan argues that the voices of cultural differences, when they struggle against the forces of hatred and exclusion, do not ground themselves just in the particular value of their culture but in the universal value of human freedom and self-determination.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Fear of Difference

The Postmodern Critique

The Emergence of Difference

The Dynamics of Difference

The Twilight of Subjecthood

Postmodern Freedom

The Contradictions of the Postmodern Politics of Difference

Realizing Postmodern Politics

Is Radical Pluralism a Coherent Idea?

The Universal Voice of the Other

The Return of the Repressed

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-282-86127-1

9786612861277

0-7735-7123-X

OCLC:

756589487