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 111
... labour . As tasks became specialized , the species began to realize its unique ability : to generate a surplus , to ... labour . However differently they understood the roots of human sociability , Smith and Rousseau were entirely at one ...
... labour . As tasks became specialized , the species began to realize its unique ability : to generate a surplus , to ... labour . However differently they understood the roots of human sociability , Smith and Rousseau were entirely at one ...
Page 120
... labour : in the formation of a system of education staffed by paid teachers specializing in martial and civic instruction . Only the reproduction of common belief through education could re - forge the social linkages fractured by the ...
... labour : in the formation of a system of education staffed by paid teachers specializing in martial and civic instruction . Only the reproduction of common belief through education could re - forge the social linkages fractured by the ...
Page 125
... labour had freed the poorest from basic need at the price of enslaving them to wage labour and commodity fetishism : only the rich and propertied enjoyed the liberation from labour promised by progress . Like Aristotle , like all ...
... labour had freed the poorest from basic need at the price of enslaving them to wage labour and commodity fetishism : only the rich and propertied enjoyed the liberation from labour promised by progress . Like Aristotle , like all ...
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