The Concept of Representation

The Concept of Representation
Author: Hanna F. Pitkin
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 1967
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780520021563

This book arises out of Hannah Pitkin's doctoral dissertation and is considered by political scientists to be the gold standard in terms of a philosophical treatment of the subject. Pitkin covers the historical evolution of thinking about representation from the Greeks through the founding of the American republic highlighting diverse thinkers and politicians like Edmund Burke, Jeremy Bentham, and James Madison as well as more contemporary scholars like Robert Dahl and Charles Lindblom.

Hanna Fenichel Pitkin

Hanna Fenichel Pitkin
Author: Dean Mathiowetz
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2016-05-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 131780192X

Hanna Fenichel Pitkin has made key contributions to the field of political philosophy, pushing forward and clarifying the ways that political theorists think about action as the exercise of political freedom. In so doing, she has offered insightful studies of the problems of modern politics that theorists are called to address, and has addressed them herself in a range of theoretical genres.. This collection of her works approaches each of these dimensions of Pitkin’s contributions in turn: The Modern Condition and the Impetus to Theorize: Pitkin has offered sustained reflection on what aspects of modern political life prompt the impulse to theorize politics. Highlighting the pitfalls that modern life and philosophy also present for that enterprise, she suggests an agenda for political theorizing that engages the dilemmas of modernity in ways that grasp the importance of paradox as a portal of insight into the modern condition, and eschews attempts at easy resolution. Moral Philosophy, Judgment, Justice: Pitkin has turned at several points in her career to the concept of justice as one that particularly brings together questions of agency and responsibility, the insights of moral philosophy, and judgment. Drawing upon a variety of methodological resources and theoretical inspirations, her work engages ordinary language philosophy, pedagogical practice, and textual study, to yield a complex and subtle set of observations, all of which open moral philosophy and matters of judgment to questions of action and responsibility in the exercise of political freedom. Action: Political agency and its obstacles are a key theme in Pitkin’s work and a main area of her theoretical innovation. She has examined the appeal of autonomy as a picture of political agency, explored the ways that the institutional arrangements of modern liberal societies attempt to link of individual and political agency and offered a picture of political freedom as maintaining the tension between individual "parts" and collective "wholes," Finally, Pitkin has meditated on the political and social conditions that most impede our ability to grasp agency as a practice of political freedom, and gestured to paths that may lead forward.

Fortune Is a Woman

Fortune Is a Woman
Author: Hanna Fenichel Pitkin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 384
Release: 1999-10-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0226669920

"Hanna Pitkin's study of Machiavelli was the first to place gender systematically at the center of its exploration of his political thought. Rife with contradictions, Machiavelli's writings have led commentators to characterize him as everything from a civic republican to a proto-fascist. Acknowledging these contradictions, Pitkin shows that they reflect three distinct ways of thinking about politics, each of which is tied to a different understanding of "manhood." In a new Afterword, Pitkin discusses the book's critical reception and situates its arguments in the context of recent interpretations of Machiavelli's thought."--Jacket.

The Attack of the Blob

The Attack of the Blob
Author: Hanna Fenichel Pitkin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 378
Release: 2000-12
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780226669915

One of the most brilliant political theorists of the twentieth century, Hannah Arendt intended her work to liberate and empower, to restore our capacity for concerted political action, to convince us that the power to improve our flawed arrangements is in our hands. At the same time, Arendt developed a metaphor of "the social" as an alien, all-consuming monster appearing as if from outer space to gobble up human freedom; she blamed it - not us - for our public paralysis and depoliticization. How can we understand her vision of the social that seems to conflict with her most important teaching? The Attack of the Blob is an imaginative and elegantly written study in which Hanna Pitkin seeks to resolve this paradox by tracing Arendt's notion of "the social" from her earliest writings to The Human Condition and beyond. Interpreting each work in its historical and personal context, Pitkin develops an answer that considers language and rhetoric, psychology and gender, authority, abstraction, and even the nature of political theory itself.

Wittgenstein and Justice

Wittgenstein and Justice
Author: Hanna Fenichel Pitkin
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 376
Release: 1985
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780520054714

Hanna Pitkin argues that Wittgenstein's later philosophy offers a revolutionary new conception of language, and hence a new and deeper understanding of ourselves and the world of human institutions and action.

Democracy

Democracy
Author: Ricardo Blaug
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 632
Release: 2016-02-28
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 074869613X

Put together specially for students of democracy, this invaluable reader gathers key statements from political thinkers, explained and contextualised with editorial commentaries. This new edition includes a new introduction, new sections and 29 new readings published since the first edition. Arranged into four sections "e; Traditional Affirmations of Democracy, Key Concepts, Critiques of Democracy and Contemporary Issues "e; it covers democratic thinking in a remarkably broad way. A general introduction highlights democracy's historical complexity and guides you through the current areas of controversy. The extensive bibliography follows the same structure as the text to help you deepen your study.

Politics for Everybody

Politics for Everybody
Author: Ned O'Gorman
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 191
Release: 2020-04-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 022668315X

In this age of nearly unprecedented partisan rancor, you’d be forgiven for thinking we could all do with a smaller daily dose of politics. In his provocative and sharp book, however, Ned O’Gorman argues just the opposite: Politics for Everybody contends that what we really need to do is engage more deeply with politics, rather than chuck the whole thing out the window. In calling for a purer, more humanistic relationship with politics—one that does justice to the virtues of open, honest exchange—O’Gorman draws on the work of Hannah Arendt (1906–75). As a German-born Jewish thinker who fled the Nazis for the United States, Arendt set out to defend politics from its many detractors along several key lines: the challenge of separating genuine politics from distorted forms; the difficulty of appreciating politics for what it is; the problems of truth and judgment in politics; and the role of persuasion in politics. O’Gorman’s book offers an insightful introduction to Arendt’s ideas for anyone who wants to think more carefully

Habermas on Law and Democracy

Habermas on Law and Democracy
Author: Michel Rosenfeld
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 488
Release: 2023-12-22
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0520917618

In the first essay, Habermas himself succinctly presents the centerpiece of his theory: his proceduralist paradigm of law. The following essays comprise elaborations, criticisms, and further explorations by others of the most salient issues addressed in his theory. The distinguished group of contributors—internationally prominent scholars in the fields of law, philosophy, and social theory—includes many who have been closely identified with Habermas as well as some of his best-known critics. The final essay is a thorough and lengthy reply by Habermas, which not only engages the most important arguments raised in the preceding essays but also further elaborates and refines some of his own key contributions in Between Facts and Norms. This volume will be essential reading for philosophers, legal scholars, and political and social theorists concerned with understanding the work of one of the leading philosophers of our age. These provocative, in-depth debates between Jürgen Habermas and a wide range of his critics relate to the philosopher's contribution to legal and democratic theory in his recently published Between Facts and Norms. Drawing upon his discourse theory, Habermas has elaborated a novel and powerful account of law that purports to bridge the gap between democracy and rights, by conceiving law to be at once self-imposed and binding.

Hypocrisy and Integrity

Hypocrisy and Integrity
Author: Ruth W. Grant
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2008-04-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0226305929

Questioning the usual judgements of political ethics, Ruth W. Grant argues that hypocrisy can actually be constructive while strictly principled behavior can be destructive. Hypocrisy and Integrity offers a new conceptual framework that clarifies the differences between idealism and fanaticism while it uncovers the moral limits of compromise.

Leo Strauss, Max Weber, and the Scientific Study of Politics

Leo Strauss, Max Weber, and the Scientific Study of Politics
Author: Nasser Behnegar
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2005-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0226041433

Can politics be studied scientifically, and if so, how? Assuming it is impossible to justify values by human reason alone, social science has come to consider an unreflective relativism the only viable basis, not only for its own operations, but for liberal societies more generally. Although the experience of the sixties has made social scientists more sensitive to the importance of values, it has not led to a fundamental reexamination of value relativism, which remains the basis of contemporary social science. Almost three decades after Leo Strauss's death, Nasser Behnegar offers the first sustained exposition of what Strauss was best known for: his radical critique of contemporary social science, and particularly of political science. Behnegar's impressive book argues that Strauss was not against the scientific study of politics, but he did reject the idea that it could be built upon political science's unexamined assumption of the distinction between facts and values. Max Weber was, for Strauss, the most profound exponent of values relativism in social science, and Behnegar's explication artfully illuminates Strauss's critique of Weber's belief in the ultimate insolubility of all value conflicts. Strauss's polemic against contemporary political science was meant to make clear the contradiction between its claim of value-free premises and its commitment to democratic principles. As Behnegar ultimately shows, values—the ethical component lacking in a contemporary social science—are essential to Strauss's project of constructing a genuinely scientific study of politics.