THE AUTHOR NOTES THAT THE INTERPRETATION OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE AS A THEORETICAL SKEPTIC BUT A PRACTICAL CONSERVATIVE DERIVES SUPPORT FROM MANY PASSAGES IN THE "ESSAYS" IN WHICH THE AUTHOR EXPRESSES AN ABHORRENCE OF INNOVATION. THE STUDY OF MONTAIGNE'S THOUGHT HELPS TO UNDERSTAND BOTH THE PRINCIPLES OUT OF WHICH LIBERALISM AROSE, AND THE ROOTS OF ITS SUBSEQUENT CRISIS.
ARGUING SCHOLARLY NEGLECT, THIS STUDY CHALLENGES THE PREVAILING INTERPRETATION OF MONTAIGNE'S THOUGHT BY ANALYZING HIS CRITIQUE OF THE CLASSICAL UNDERSTANDING OF SUPREME MORAL VIRTUE. THE AUTHOR ARGUES THAT MONTAIGNE'S POLITICAL PROJECT WAS TO REPLACE A TRADITIONAL MORALITY BASED ON BEAUTY WITH ONE EMBODYING "UTILITY".
Democratic Decision-Making: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives contains eight essays by political scientists, all but one of them previously unpublished, addressing various aspects of the democratic decision-making process. The book consists of four parts, each consisting of two essays devoted to a common theme: democratic statesmanship, the extent to which limitations of the democratic principle of majority rule are desirable, the contemporary academic theory of "deliberative democracy," and informal modes of democratic decision-making.
Zugriffsoptionen:
Die folgenden Links führen aus den jeweiligen lokalen Bibliotheken zum Volltext:
Introduction: John Rawls and the crisis of American liberalism -- Justice as fairness -- The second principle of justice -- "Choosing" principles of justice in the original position -- A just constitution -- Economic justice -- Civil disobedience vs. the right of resistance -- "Goodness as rationality," self-respect, and rawlsian jurisprudence -- The sense of justice -- The just and the good -- Political liberalism I : principles -- Political liberalism II : applications -- "The idea of public reason revisited."
"Schaefer challenges John Rawls's practically sacrosanct status among scholars of political theory, law, and ethics by demonstrating how Rawls's teachings deviate from the core tradition of American constitutional liberalism toward libertarianism"--Provided by publisher
Abstract Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592), author of the Essays (published in successive, revised and expanded editions from 1580 until after his death), deserves to be recognized as the first) philosophic architect of modern liberalism, that is, a doctrine that advocates the advancement of individual liberty (under law), and consequently a reduction in the scope and purpose of government to securing what are represented by Montaigne's successors (Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, and the American Founders) as people's inherent rights to their life, liberty, property, and the "pursuit of happiness" as they conceive it. His outward, periodic professions of extreme conservatism and of homage to the Catholic Church are merely a rhetorical cover designed to protect the author from being persecuted (and his book from being banned). As a practitioner of what he describes as esoteric rhetoric (attributing it to the ancient political philosophers), Montaigne invites careful readers to see through his rhetorical concealment by noting how his conservative professions are undermined by the overall train of his reasoning and argument. Although Montaigne's argument for liberal individualism may have gone too far in its influence over the long run (that is, the 21st century), we citizens of modern liberal regimes owe him a debt of gratitude for helping to liberate us from the reign of arbitrary monarchs, oppressive aristocrats, and clerical oppressors.
