Minerva's owl : the tradition of western political thought
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Minerva's owl : the tradition of western political thought
Harvard University Press, 2010
- : pbk
Available at 2 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Originally published: 2009
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Informal in tone yet serious in content, this book serves as a lively and accessible guide for readers discovering the tradition of political thought that dates back to Socrates and Plato. Because the arguments of the great philosophers are nearly eternal, even those long schooled on politics will find that this book calls on recurring questions about morality and power, justice and war, the risk of democracy, the necessity for evil, the perils of tolerance, and the meaning of happiness. Jeffrey Abramson argues politics with the classic writers and draws the reader into a spirited conversation with contemporary examples that illustrate the enduring nature of political dilemmas. As the discussions deepen, the voices of Abramson's own teachers, and of the students he has taught, enter into the mix, and the book becomes a tribute not just to the great philosophers but also to the special bond between teacher and student.
As Hegel famously noted, referring to the Roman goddess Minerva, her owl brought back wisdom only at dusk, when it was too late to shine light on actual politics. Abramson reminds us that there are real political problems to confront, and in a book filled with grace and passion, he captures just how exciting serious learning can be.
Table of Contents
* Introduction: The Canon of Political Thought * Plato's Republic: The Debate over Justice Begins * The Students Revolt against Utopia * Out of the Cave and into the Light--and Back Again? * Beyond Plato's Tragic Republic * Aristotle's Ethics: The Habits of Virtue * Aristotle's Politics: Severed Hands and Political Animals * Augustine and the Problem of Evil * Machiavelli's Dirty Hands * Hobbes and the Kingdom of Means * Locke, Liberalism, and the Possessive Life * Rousseau and the Rustic * Rousseau and the Political * Kant's Crooked Timber * John Stuart Mill and the Demands of Individuality * Hegel, Marx, and the Owl of Minerva * The Revival of Political Theory * Conclusion: The Passion for Politics * Notes * Acknowledgments * Index
by "Nielsen BookData"