Toward a Global Thin Community: Nietzsche, Foucault, and the Cosmopolitan Commitment

by Olssen,Mark

• ISBN13: 9781594514463
• ISBN10: 1594514461
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-12-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Toward a Global 'Thin' Community re-examines aspects of the liberal-communitarian debate. While critical of both traditions, this book argues that a coherent form of communitarianism is the only plausible option for citizens today. Using the theories of Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault, Olssen shows how we can overcome traditional problems with communitarianism by using an ethic of survival that he identifies in the writings of Nietzsche and others to provide a normative framework for twenty-first century politics at both national and global levels. 'œThin' communitarianism seeks to surmount traditional objections associated with Hegel and Marx, and to safeguard liberty and difference by applying a robust idea of democracy.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Introduction: The 'Thin' Community and Liberalism	p. 1
Two Thinkers
Nietzsche and the Philosophy of the Future	p. 21
Foucault as 'Thin' Communitarian: Difference, Community, Democracy	p. 38
Assembling Normative Theory
A Post-Structuralist Approach to Community	p. 65
Toward a Social Theory of Practice	p. 83
Life as Good and Bad	p. 102
Universalism, Cultural Pluralism, and the Ethics of the Future	p. 130
Toward a Global Thin Community
The Necessity of Co-Ordination	p. 161
Communitarian Cosmopolitanism	p. 183
Toward a Global Thin Community	p. 209
References	p. 234
Index	p. 254
About the Author	p. 266
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