Liberals and Cannibals: The Implications of Diversity - Brossura

Lukes, Steven

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1784786470 ISBN 13: 9781784786472

Casa editrice: Verso Books, 2017

Riassunto

The essays in this collection focus on the perennial but newly urgent questions of how the tension between relativism and the moral universalism current in contemporary politics can be resolved within the framework of liberalism. How is liberal society to interpret the diversity of morals? Is pluralism the appropriate response? How does pluralism differ from the widely condemned relativism more specifically, the double bind of ethnocentric universalism, or ‘liberalism for the Liberals, cannibalism for the cannibals.’

Taking as his starting point Robert Frost’s accusation that a liberal is someone who can’t take his own side in an argument, Steven Lukes confronts liberal thought with its own limitations. While recognizing the dangers of moral imperialism, Lukes argues that a relativist position based on identifying clearly distinct cultural and moral communities is incoherent. Drawing on work in anthropology and philosophy, he examines the nature of social justice, the politics of identity and human rights theory, as well as discussing how ideas drawn from the work of Isaiah Berlin can shed light on these debates.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

'Written in a beautifully clear style, full of a keen, serious wit ... Lukes achieves both lightness and weight in a way many novelists might envy.' --Independent

'Steven Lukes's moral fable is in the tradition of tall travellers' tales from Swift and Voltaire to Lewis Carroll and Samuel Butler.' --(Praise for Curious Enlightenment) - London Review of Books

'This book is a box of delights, often wonderfully funny and always deliciously clever, a contemporary political satire to set among the best.' --(Praise for Curious Enlightenment) - New Statesman

L'autore:

Steven Lukes is Professor of Sociology at NYU. He has previously taught at the London School of Economics and the University of Siena, and is the author of numerous works including Emile Durkheim: His Life and Work, Power: A Radical View and What is Left?

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Verso Books
• Data di pubblicazione: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1784786470
• ISBN 13: 9781784786472
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 180