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Political Theory for Mortals Shades of Justice, Images of Death / John E. Seery.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Seery, John Evan.
- Series:
- Contestations Series
- Contestations
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Political science.
- Justice.
- Death--Political aspects.
- Death.
- Döden.
- Political science--History.
- Genre:
- History.
- Electronic books.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource
- Edition:
- 1st ed.
- Manufacture:
- Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2021
- Place of Publication:
- Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press, 1996.
- Language Note:
- In English.
- Summary:
- Despite an abundance of violence occurring in political contexts, no liberal political theorist since Thomas Hobbes has talked directly and coherently about death. John E. Seery does. He contends that liberalism desperately needs a theoretical framework in which to discuss pressing matters of human mortality. Among the contemporary political issues that cry out for theoretical articulation, Seery suggests, are abortion politics, ethnic cleansing, suicide assistance, national reparations, environmental degradation, and capital punishment. Seery offers a new conception of social contract theory as a framework for confronting death issues. He urges us to look to an older tradition of descent into an underworld, wherein classic theorists consulted poetically with the dead and acquired from them political insight and direction.In this lively book, Seery excavates the infernal tradition by rereading the politics of death in Platonism, early Christianity, and contemporary feminism. Building on those traditions, he proposes a new, constructive image of death that can serve democratic theory productively. Reconsidered from the "land of the shades," social contractarian theory is sufficiently altered that, for example, a pro-life Christian and a pro-choice secularist might be able to strike common ground upon which to discuss abortion politics.
- Contents:
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- CHAPTER ONE. The Academy
- CHAPTER TWO. The Cave
- CHAPTER THREE. The Tomb
- CHAPTER FOUR. The Womb
- CHAPTER FIVE. The Agora
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Index
- Notes:
- Description based on print version record.
- Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.
- ISBN:
- 9781501718311
- 1501718312
- OCLC:
- 1083588748
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