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
Results 1-3 of 27
Page 64
... utopia that will relieve them of the lonely burden of private judgement . But the escape from the first freedom into a utopia that promises the second is a leap into despotism ; it is the choice to shake off the loneliness of private ...
... utopia that will relieve them of the lonely burden of private judgement . But the escape from the first freedom into a utopia that promises the second is a leap into despotism ; it is the choice to shake off the loneliness of private ...
Page 116
... utopia , inherited from the ' ancient treatises of virtue ' , with the modern language of ' commerce and money ' . In the Discourse on Political Economy , his most extended attempt to ground utopia in an economics of the encircling ...
... utopia , inherited from the ' ancient treatises of virtue ' , with the modern language of ' commerce and money ' . In the Discourse on Political Economy , his most extended attempt to ground utopia in an economics of the encircling ...
Page 128
... utopia for many inhabitants of actually existing social- ism . This ironic and tragic enactment of utopia is an endless source of self - congratulation in the West . Yet where in this global empire , in this universal market that prides ...
... utopia for many inhabitants of actually existing social- ism . This ironic and tragic enactment of utopia is an endless source of self - congratulation in the West . Yet where in this global empire , in this universal market that prides ...
Contents
Tragedy and Utopia | 7 |
THE NATURAL AND THE SOCIAL | 25 |
BODY AND SPIRIT | 55 |
Copyright | |
5 other sections not shown
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