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 21
... understand the order of modern civil society as a ' system of needs ' , to use Hegel's term , as an order maintained ... understanding the quality of modern man's happiness . The social sciences which descend from the Enlightenment's ...
... understand the order of modern civil society as a ' system of needs ' , to use Hegel's term , as an order maintained ... understanding the quality of modern man's happiness . The social sciences which descend from the Enlightenment's ...
Page 60
... understand why God had seen fit to divide human will and desire in this way . There was , it seemed , a division in the will itself , a natural will to do the good and a resistant will that chooses evil . This was the ' deep shadow ...
... understand why God had seen fit to divide human will and desire in this way . There was , it seemed , a division in the will itself , a natural will to do the good and a resistant will that chooses evil . This was the ' deep shadow ...
Page 97
... understand some- thing of Boswell's disquiet at that last interview . The core of the Humian claim in morals is that we need not know anything certain about the ultimate ends of life in order to discharge our obligations . Indeed , we ...
... understand some- thing of Boswell's disquiet at that last interview . The core of the Humian claim in morals is that we need not know anything certain about the ultimate ends of life in order to discharge our obligations . Indeed , we ...
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