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 41
... necessity's sharp pinch ' . Those born into necessity , the Fool remarks , never search her out , and those used to nature's ' horrible pleasure ' do not trouble themselves about her injustice . Only a king would see in the impersonal ...
... necessity's sharp pinch ' . Those born into necessity , the Fool remarks , never search her out , and those used to nature's ' horrible pleasure ' do not trouble themselves about her injustice . Only a king would see in the impersonal ...
Page 50
... necessity cannot avoid tragedy . If need is a tragic idea , if King Lear is a tragedy of need , it is because those feelings we call needs have a necessity which can drive us even to our own destruction . Desire does not have the force ...
... necessity cannot avoid tragedy . If need is a tragic idea , if King Lear is a tragedy of need , it is because those feelings we call needs have a necessity which can drive us even to our own destruction . Desire does not have the force ...
Page 93
... necessity . The luxuries of the few gradually become the necessities of all . If moral virtue depends on common agreement about necessity , how is moral virtue possible in a society which is constantly pushing back the limits of need ...
... necessity . The luxuries of the few gradually become the necessities of all . If moral virtue depends on common agreement about necessity , how is moral virtue possible in a society which is constantly pushing back the limits of need ...
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