The Needs of Strangers: An Essay on Privacy, Solidarity, and the Politics of Being HumanWhat do we need in order to survive? Whose needs do we have a right to speak for? Which needs can be satisfied through political actions, and which cannot? To answer these vital questions, Michael Ignatieff returns to the ancient languages of religion, art, and tragedy—and to important texts by Shakespeare, St. Augustine, and the great writers of the Enlightenment. Drawing on these sources, he has written an incisive, moving interpretation of community and democracy in a work that not only examines the breakdown of human solidarity but shows how it might be re-created. The Needs of Strangers restores philosophy to its proper place as a guide to the art of being human. |
From inside the book
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Page 53
... depend on the uncertain and fitful protection of a world conscience defending them as examples of the universal ... depends on the abstract humanity of another for his food and protection . Woe betide any person who has no state ...
... depend on the uncertain and fitful protection of a world conscience defending them as examples of the universal ... depends on the abstract humanity of another for his food and protection . Woe betide any person who has no state ...
Page 93
... depend . Yet there is an obvious difficulty : in a capitalist society , or as Hume would have said a ' commercial ... depends on common agreement about necessity , how is moral virtue possible in a society which is constantly pushing ...
... depend . Yet there is an obvious difficulty : in a capitalist society , or as Hume would have said a ' commercial ... depends on common agreement about necessity , how is moral virtue possible in a society which is constantly pushing ...
Page 95
... depends on the schooling of their passions by habit , custom and opinion ; such wills as they have , he said , are the playthings of their emotions , not the servants of their reason . 43 His relatively sunny assessment of capitalist ...
... depends on the schooling of their passions by habit , custom and opinion ; such wills as they have , he said , are the playthings of their emotions , not the servants of their reason . 43 His relatively sunny assessment of capitalist ...
Contents
Tragedy and Utopia | 7 |
THE NATURAL AND THE SOCIAL | 25 |
BODY AND SPIRIT | 55 |
Copyright | |
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Other editions - View all
The Needs of Strangers: An Essay on Privacy, Solidarity, and the Politics of ... Michael Ignatieff No preview available - 1986 |
The Needs of Strangers: An Essay on Privacy, Solidarity, and the Politics of ... Michael Ignatieff No preview available - 1986 |
Common terms and phrases
Adam Smith amour de soi Augustine Augustinian available from Penguin basic need beggar belonging blind body books available Bosch's Boswell Cambridge capacity capitalist certainty choice choose Christian citizens civic claim commercial society common Cordelia critique daughters David Hume death desire Discourse on Inequality division of labour duty economic equality Essays father flesh fraternity freedom give happiness Haywain heath Hieronymus Bosch human nature human needs Hume Treatise Hume's hunger individuals inequality insisted J. G. A. Pocock justice King Lear Lear's liberty live London madness man's Marx means metaphysical Michael Ignatieff modern moral necessity needs of strangers never obligation Paradise Pascal passion Philosophy pity poor question reason reconcile Religion religious republic respect retinue rich Rousseau Saint satisfaction scarcity secular self-command Social Contract solidarity species spiral of need spiritual need Stoic things Thou Tom O'Bedlam tragedy utopia virtue vision welfare yearning