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 13
... idea that these needs make rights ; an attack on this idea puts into question the very notion of a society as a moral community . In the attempt to defend the principle that needs do make rights , it is possible to forget about the ...
... idea that these needs make rights ; an attack on this idea puts into question the very notion of a society as a moral community . In the attempt to defend the principle that needs do make rights , it is possible to forget about the ...
Page 27
... idea of need with the idea of duty and obligation is what distinguishes need from desire . Need is bounded by the idea of the necessary or the essential . Desire is unbounded even by the idea of utility . It is possible to specify the ...
... idea of need with the idea of duty and obligation is what distinguishes need from desire . Need is bounded by the idea of the necessary or the essential . Desire is unbounded even by the idea of utility . It is possible to specify the ...
Page 28
... idea of natural human identity . A society in which strangers would feel common belonging and mutual responsibility to each other depends on trust , and trust reposes in turn on the idea that beneath difference there is identity . Yet ...
... idea of natural human identity . A society in which strangers would feel common belonging and mutual responsibility to each other depends on trust , and trust reposes in turn on the idea that beneath difference there is identity . Yet ...
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