The Primacy of the Political

by Howard, Dick

• ISBN13: 9780231135955
• ISBN10: 0231135955
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-10-01
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr

Summary

The conflict between politics and antipolitics has replayed throughout Western history and philosophical thought. From the beginning, Plato's quest for absolute certainty led him to denounce democracy, an anti-political position challenged by Aristotle. In his wide-ranging narrative, Dick Howard puts this dilemma into fresh perspective, proving our contemporary political problems are not as unique as we think.Howard begins with democracy in ancient Greece and the rise and fall of republican politics in Rome. In the wake of Rome's collapse, political thought searched for a new medium, and the conflict between politics and antipolitics reemerged through the contrasting theories of Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas. During the Renaissance and Reformation, the emergence of the modern individual again transformed the terrain of the political. Even so, politics vs. antipolitics dominated the period, frustrating even Machiavelli, who sought to reconceptualize the nature of political thought. Hobbes and Locke, theorists of the social contract, then reenacted the conflict, which Rousseau sought (in vain) to overcome. Adam Smith and the growth of modern economic liberalism, the radicalism of the French revolution, and the conservative reaction of Edmund Burke subsequently marked the triumph of antipolitics, while the American Revolution momentarily offered the potential for a renewal of politics. Taken together, these historical examples, viewed through the prism of philosophy, reveal the roots of today's political climate and suggest the trajectory of battles yet to come.

Author Biography

Dick Howard is distinguished professor of philosophy at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. He is the author of numerous books in French and English, including The Specter of Democracy: What Marx and Marxists Haven't Understood and Why, From Marx to Kant, Defining the Political, and The Birth of American Political Thought.

Table of Contents

A Note to the Reader	p. VII
Acknowledgments	p. XV
Introduction	p. 1
Democracy and the Renewal of Political Thought
The Rise and Fall of Athenian Democracy	p. 21
The Origins of Athenian Democracy	p. 24
The Ideal and the Reality of Athenian Democracy: Pericles' Funeral Oration	p. 32
Plato's Philosophical Antipolitics	p. 35
Aristotle and the Property Political	p. 59
Philosophy Goes Private	p. 79
The Rise and Fall of Roman Republicanism	p. 86
Livy and the Origin of the Republican Spirit	p. 91
Polybius and the Structure of Republican Institutions	p. 101
Cicero and the Moral Theory of Republican Politics	p. 110
The Empire Turns Inward: The Emergence of Pauline Christianity	p. 117
The Conflict of the Sacred and the Secular	p. 125
The Two Cities in Theory and Practice	p. 126
The Conflict of the Two Cities Becomes a Reality	p. 137
Natural Law and the Dynamic Integration of the Two Cities	p. 144
Piety, Theology, and the Birth of Modern Man	p. 155
Facing the Challenge of Modernity	p. 162
Luther's Soteriological Politics: Spiritual Democracy or Political Servitude	p. 166
Calvin's Political Ecclesiology: Conservative Republicanism	p. 180
Machiavelli's Political Realism: The Illusions of the Republican Prince	p. 189
Modern Individualism and Political Obligation	p. 208
Hobbes's Liberal Absolutism	p. 210
Locke's Constitutional Liberalism	p. 227
Rousseau's Defensive Republicanism	p. 245
The End of Political Philosophy?	p. 270
A Political Economy?	p. 274
The French Revolution and the Ambiguities of a Democratic Republic	p. 289
The Legitimacy of Conservatism?	p. 302
The United States as a Republican Democracy	p. 312
Conclusion	p. 327
Elements for a Democratic Renewal
Notes	p. 335
Glossary	p. 355
Index	p. 377
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