The following books are currently sitting on my bedside table: "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy", "Predictable Revenue", "Manufacturing Consent", "Agile Application Security". The two authors are also Jewish refugees from Germany in the 1940s. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. This book examines the central problems involved in political philosophy and the past attempts to respond to these problems. The size of this group determines almost everything about politics: what leaders can get away with, and the quality of life or misery under them. [This book and "Political Order and Political Decay" is] a fantastic two-part book. While both are clearly full of strategic wisdom, they are hard to separate from their respective eras and brands of warfare. Rawls argues most people would agree to basic healthcare, fairness, and so on — and uses this as his basis for his “justice as fairness” social contract whereby the state has an integral role to play in the lives of its citizens, which he builds upon in detail throughout this brilliant and significant work. Facts matter very little if at all. In so doing, it makes a valuable contribution to the democratic process and this new edition will continue to be essential reading for students of political philosophy and theory. The Scope of Ancient Political Philosophy. There's a difference between "1 person 1 vote" versus Stakeholder Voting. A liberal society must govern by principles of justice that do not presuppose any particular vision of the good life. This is our collective house & #Barr should be evicted. In Beyond Good and Evil Friedrich Nietzsche contends that no human values are absolute; that all value distinctions (such as that between 'good' and 'evil') are artificial, the result of mere traditional prejudices; and that humanity should discard its old, outmoded values (such as 'good' and 'evil'). If you read Marx with a critical critique you can see that he's laid out a fantastic framework on how capitalism works, I do disagree with his core premise (capitalism being bad) so I took it as a great way to understand how I could operate inside of a capitalist economy. The Prince [with Biographical Introduction], The Open Society and Its Enemies - Volume One, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, The Open Society and Its Enemies - Volume Two, The Genealogy of Morals (Translated by Horace B. Samuel with an Introduction by Willard Huntington Wright), The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know. The Prince is sometimes claimed to be one of the first works of modern philosophy, especially modern political philosophy, in which the effective truth is taken to be more important than any abstract ideal. This is how to view the constitution in its proper perspective, as a document of limited government, and enormous personal freedom â as an attempt to understand human nature and draw on both its strengths and its weaknesses to... (Source), Ruth Ben-GhiatHer most useful (and her most chilling) conclusion for today is that totalitarian tools were not specific to Nazism or Stalinism or any ideology. A Theory of Justice is a 1971 work of political philosophy and ethics by the philosopher John Rawls, in which the author attempts to provide a moral theory alternative to utilitarianism and that addresses the problem of distributive justice (the socially just distribution of goods in a society). His recent publications include Spinoza, Liberalism, and Jewish Identity, Spinoza’s Book of Life, and Reading Leo Strauss. Take Machiavelli slow, and really read him. In the book Machiavelli offers many bits of practical advice on how to rule and even though the book was written in the early 16th century its ideas are still very relevant today. It touches on almost all Nietzscheâs central concerns â on truth, on the nature of philosophy, on morality, on whatâs wrong with morality, will to power. It is comprehensive and easy to use. Hereâs my best of 2018... (Source), Arnold SchwarzeneggerThe other book that I have given hundreds of copies to is Free to Choose by Milton Friedman. Virtually all human societies were once organized tribally, yet over time most developed new political institutions which included a central state that could keep the peace and uniform laws that applied to all citizens. [...] The Wealth of Nations (Smith) [to learn that capitalism is an economy of greed, a force of nature unto itself]. He... (Source), Grover NorquistWith Free to Choose, the title summarises it. To offset a fraction of what it costs to maintain Philosophy Break and keep it ad-free, we participate in the Amazon Associates Program. The Wealth of Nations provided the first--and still the most eloquent--integrated description of the workings of a market economy. (Source), Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Robert C. Tucker | 4.16, Carl von Clausewitz, Michael Eliot Howard, Peter Paret | 4.15. The book now includes two new chapters on citizenship theory and multiculturalism, in addition to updated chapters on utilitarianism, liberal egalitarianism, libertarianism, socialism, communitarianism, and feminism. Widely regarded as the foundational text of modern liberalism, in this short work Locke asserts that we are all born equal and endowed with natural rights and freedoms, and that governments can never be considered legitimate unless they have the consent of the people. His evocative writings on religion, morality, culture, philosophy, and science were often polemic attacks against the established views of his time. (Source), A C GraylingHe said the great question is how we should live well, so that we live a good life, and he came up with a very positive response â what distinguishes us from the rest of the world is our possession of reason (Source), Christian B MillerAccording to Aristotle, it is hard to become virtuous, and hard to become vicious too. It also includes Leo Strauss's analysis of Schmitt's thesis and a foreword by Tracy B. Civil Disobedience, also included in this volume, expresses his antislavery and antiwar sentiments, and has influenced non-violent... Disdainful of Americaâs booming commercialism and industrialism, Henry David Thoreau left Concord, Massachusetts, in 1845 to live in solitude in the woods near Walden Pond. The Declaration of Independence was the promise of a representative government; the Constitution was the fulfillment of that promise. Mark Tunick draws on recently published but still untranslated lectures of Hegel's philosophy of right to take us to the core of Hegel's political thought. The essay might have been written today. You need both. Publishers description: This new edition of Will Kymlicka’s best selling critical introduction to contemporary political theory has been fully revised to include many of the most significant developments in Anglo-American political philosophy in the last 11 years, particularly the new debates over issues of democratic citizenship and cultural pluralism. These are the questions addressed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau's. (Source), Sam HarrisJust a great example of how English should be written and just a great voice to have in your head as a result. We should talk about your reaction to it! If you read all of the above works you will glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world. My list would be (besides the ones I mentioned in answer to the previous question) both business & Fiction/Sci-Fi and ones I personally found helpful to myself. They published their book in 1947, and they share a great deal with Ernst Bloch, whom they knew, although they had different perspectives in regard to philosophy and sociology. It provides a broad survey of key social and political questions in modern society, as well as clear discussions of the philosophical issues central to those questions and to political thought more generally. How is it that the law enforcer itself does not have to keep the law? [...] The Art of War (Sun Tsu) [to learn that the act of killing fellow humans can be raised to an art]. Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes 4. ‘The Political Philosophy of Refuge brings together the top scholars in the field for timely commentaires on the key debates surrounding refugees. Obama cites John Steinbeckâs âIn Dubious Battle,â about a labor dispute; Robert Caroâs âPower Broker,â about Robert Moses; and Studs Terkelâs âWorking.â But he also includes Adam Smithâs âWealth of Nationsâ and âTheory of Moral Sentimentsâ on his list. By removing himself from the distractions of materialism, Thoreau hoped to not only improve his spiritual life but also gain a better understanding of society through solitary introspection. It begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism (or simply Optimism) by his mentor, Pangloss. Using examples from politics, films, fiction, work and education, it argues that capitalist realism colours all areas of contemporary experience. In this brilliant study (his best-known and most controversial), he opposes the Marxist concept of dialectical materialism and its view that change takes place through "the struggle of opposites." This expanded edition of Ayn Rand's classic tale of a future dark age of the great "We"--in which individuals have no name, no independence, and no values--is a beautifully written, powerful novel that projects current social trends into the future, and anticipates such later Rand masterpieces as The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Against the Web: A… by Michael Brooks. De Cive states his theory in what he regarded as its most scientific form. Some people might think they don't have much need of political philosophy: "Who cares about wishy-washy obtuse notions of justice? The core of this book is a systematic treatment of the historic transformation of the West from monarchy to democracy. The essays have more structure and extended argumentation than is typical in most of Nietzscheâs works. This is one of Machiavelli’s most lasting influences upon modernity. By one of the most profoundly influential thinkers of our century, The Rebel is a classic essay on revolution. I think itâs wrong but, again, youâve just got to admire its genius. This clever and accessible book shows that the difference between tyrants and democrats is just a convenient fiction. Tocqueville was seized by the sharp contrast between Paris and America, where people did not wait for the central government, but went ahead on their own, and I think thatâs vital part of what it is to be both an American and a vital part of what is America. And how do governments founded upon the defense of individual rights degenerate into tyranny? After 1989, capitalism has successfully presented itself as the only realistic political-economic system - a situation that the bank crisis of 2008, far from ending, actually compounded. It applies to our own time. Weâre not for freedom because it brings technology and improvements in standards of living. 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