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. |
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Page 73
... desire is wholly fulfilled . Everything craves what belongs to its nature , and therefore desires its parts to be re - united . Since the human soul is united by nature to the body there is within it a natural appetite for that union ...
... desire is wholly fulfilled . Everything craves what belongs to its nature , and therefore desires its parts to be re - united . Since the human soul is united by nature to the body there is within it a natural appetite for that union ...
Page 91
... desire sated , sensation consecrates the chase , validates all toil . Without the certainties of pleasure , the very survival of the species would be stalled by rational doubt . In their beds , humans give themselves to the spiral of desire ...
... desire sated , sensation consecrates the chase , validates all toil . Without the certainties of pleasure , the very survival of the species would be stalled by rational doubt . In their beds , humans give themselves to the spiral of desire ...
Page 123
... desire within a set of democratic limits of need , and it does so for the sake of social solidarity , civic virtue , and the primacy of public over private life . It does so at a cost . Societies that constrain the economic desires of ...
... desire within a set of democratic limits of need , and it does so for the sake of social solidarity , civic virtue , and the primacy of public over private life . It does so at a cost . Societies that constrain the economic desires of ...
Contents
Tragedy and Utopia | 7 |
THE NATURAL AND THE SOCIAL | 25 |
BODY AND SPIRIT | 55 |
Copyright | |
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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