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 28
... natural human identity . We want to know what we have in common with each other beneath the infinity of our differences . We want to know what it means to be human , and we want to know what that knowledge commits us to in terms of duty ...
... natural human identity . We want to know what we have in common with each other beneath the infinity of our differences . We want to know what it means to be human , and we want to know what that knowledge commits us to in terms of duty ...
Page 29
... natural identity of my body seems marked by social difference . The identity between such hunger as I have ever known and the hunger of the street people of Calcutta is a purely linguistic one . My common natural identity of need ...
... natural identity of my body seems marked by social difference . The identity between such hunger as I have ever known and the hunger of the street people of Calcutta is a purely linguistic one . My common natural identity of need ...
Page 72
... natural inclination to God , Augustine believed from his own spiritual travail that man's needs , the natural in man , are the chief marks of his corruption . To naturalize religious inclination as an intrinsic human need is to erode ...
... natural inclination to God , Augustine believed from his own spiritual travail that man's needs , the natural in man , are the chief marks of his corruption . To naturalize religious inclination as an intrinsic human need is to erode ...
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