Readings in Social and Political Philosophy

by Stewart, Robert M.

• ISBN13: 9780195095180
• ISBN10: 0195095189
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-02-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This updated edition of a well-established anthology of social and political philosophy combines extensive selections from classical works with significant recent contributions to the field, many of which are not easily available. Its central focus is on the liberal currents in modern Western political thought--variants of classical liberalism, modern liberalism, and libertarianism--with specific focus on differing conceptions of political obligation, freedom, distributive justice, and representative democracy. The text is organized into four thematic sections: Political Obligation and Consent, Freedom and Coercion, Justice and Equality, and Democracy and Representation, making it easily accessible to students. Each chapter features selections from classical thinkers alongside writings by influential contemporary philosophers and political theorists, thus tracing the historical development and transformation of Western political thought on key issues in the field. Among the classical authors represented in this collection are Plato, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Mill. Contemporary contributors include John Rawls, Isaiah Berlin, Thomas Scanlon, Robert Nozick, Thomas Nagel, Ronald Dworkin, and Hanna Pitkin. Each section is preceded by an introductory overview and followed by a helpful, current bibliography providing guides to further reading.

Table of Contents

Introduction	ix
I Political Obligation and Consent
Crito	4	(9)
Plato
From Second Treatise of Civil Government	13	(27)
John Locke
Of the Original Contract	40	(10)
David Hume
Obligation and Consent, II	50	(16)
Hanna F. Pitkin
The Principle of Fair Play	66	(17)
A. John Simmons
Suggested Further Reading	83	(5)
II Freedom and Coercion
Of the Liberty of Subjects	88	(2)
Thomas Hobbes
Two Concepts of Liberty	90	(8)
Isaiah Berlin
What's Wrong with Negative Liberty	98	(12)
Charles Taylor
From ``On Liberty''	110	(32)
John Stuart Mill
The ``Open Society'' and Its Fallacies	142	(10)
Willmoore Kendall
Freedom of Expression and Categories of Expression	152	(19)
Thomas M. Scanlon, Jr.
Liberty and Harm to Others	171	(12)
David Lyons
We Do Not Have a Right to Liberty	183	(9)
Ronald Dworkin
Suggested Further Reading	192	(6)
III Justice and Equality
From Discourse on the Origin of Inequality	198	(13)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
A Kantian Conception of Equality	211	(8)
John Rawls
Distributive Justice	219	(16)
John Rawls
Distributive Justice	235	(24)
Robert Nozick
Liberty, Contract, and Contribution	259	(13)
Thomas M. Scanlon, Jr.
Equality	272	(12)
Thomas Nagel
Communitarian and Liberal Theories of the Good	284	(16)
Jeffrey Paul
Fred D. Miller, Jr.
Responsibility, Reactive Attitudes, and Liberalism in Philosophy and Politics	300	(15)
Samuel Scheffler
The Domain of the Political and Overlapping Consensus	315	(15)
John Rawls
Suggested Further Reading	330	(6)
IV Democracy and Representation
From Considerations on Representative Government	336	(23)
John Stuart Mill
Open Government and Just Legislation: A Defense of Democracy	359	(24)
William N. Nelson
A Paradox in the Theory of Democracy	383	(10)
Richard Wollheim
Democracy Without Preference	393	(16)
David M. Estlund
Losing the Faith: Feminism and Democracy	409	(9)
Susan Mendus
Political Representation	418	(16)
Hanna F. Pitkin
Implementing Representation: A Framework and Two Applications	434	(19)
Bruce E. Cain
W. T. Jones
Suggested Further Reading	453