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 14
... species with the capacity to create and transform our needs , the only species whose needs have a history . It is the needs we have created for ourselves , and the language of entitlements we have derived from them , which give us any ...
... species with the capacity to create and transform our needs , the only species whose needs have a history . It is the needs we have created for ourselves , and the language of entitlements we have derived from them , which give us any ...
Page 19
... species with needs that exceed our grasp , the only species to ask questions about the purposes of our existence which our reason is unable to answer . Contemporary politics is largely silent about this need for metaphysical consolation ...
... species with needs that exceed our grasp , the only species to ask questions about the purposes of our existence which our reason is unable to answer . Contemporary politics is largely silent about this need for metaphysical consolation ...
Page 91
... species would be stalled by rational doubt . In their beds , humans give themselves to the spiral of desire , without a thought to the welfare of the species , the future of their children , indeed to anything at all . " On the fact ...
... species would be stalled by rational doubt . In their beds , humans give themselves to the spiral of desire , without a thought to the welfare of the species , the future of their children , indeed to anything at all . " On the fact ...
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