Taking as their departure point the political-philosophical analyses of German scholar Tilo Schabert, the philosophical and empirical essays in this volume invite the reader to move beyond the sterile dichotomy of political activity as either pure will or as folded into a more manageable activity.

Selected essays of Maurice Merleau-Ponty published from 1947 to 1961.

Using his background in political theory and philosophical anthropology, Barry Cooper is the first political scientist to propose new interpretations of some of the most famous extant Paleolithic art and artifacts in Paleolithic Politics. This book is inspired by Eric Voegelin, one of the major political scientists of the last century, who developed an interest in the very early symbolism associated with the caves and rock shelters of the Upper Paleolithic, but never finished his analysis. Cooper, who has written extensively on Voegelin’s theories, takes up the enterprise of applying Voegelin’s approach to an analysis of portable and cave art. He specifically applies Voegelin’s philosophy of consciousness, his concept of the compactness and differentiation of consciousness, his argument regarding the experience and symbolizations of reality, and his notion of the primary experience of the cosmos to images previously regarded as pedestrian. Cooper demonstrates the political significance of the earliest expressions of human existence and is among the first to argue that political life began not with the Greeks, but 25,000 years before them. Archaeologists, prehistorians, and political scientists will all benefit from this original and provocative work.

Winner of the 2018 Edwin Ballard Prize awarded by the Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology This book develops a unique phenomenology of plurality by introducing Hannah Arendt’s work into current debates taking place in the phenomenological tradition. Loidolt offers a systematic treatment of plurality that unites the fields of phenomenology, political theory, social ontology, and Arendt studies to offer new perspectives on key concepts such as intersubjectivity, selfhood, personhood, sociality, community, and conceptions of the "we." Phenomenology of Plurality is an in-depth, phenomenological analysis of Arendt that represents a viable third way between the "modernist" and "postmodernist" camps in Arendt scholarship. It also introduces a number of political and ethical insights that can be drawn from a phenomenology of plurality. This book will appeal to scholars interested in the topics of plurality and intersubjectivity within phenomenology, existentialism, political philosophy, ethics, and feminist philosophy.

What accounts for the widespread disillusionment with politics? Person-centered Politics suggests that politics today, through its structures, processes, and institutions tends to presuppose and to impose a certain caricature of the human person that inhibits and frustrates a real sense of personal participation in an authentic common good of politics and society. In 12 chapters that touch on fundamental themes of political philosophy, Person-centered Politics proposes the social and transcendent dimensions of personal existence and their application to the renewal of politics today. The themes explore the commonly accepted assumptions of politics today and how a renewed understanding of the person can invigorate political discourse and action. In Person-centered Politics the author is in continuous dialogue with some of the major contemporary philosophers and thinkers, such as Eric Voegelin, David Walsh, Robert Sokolowski, Vaclav Havel, Pierre Manent, Peter Simpson, and Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. Detailed footnotes in each chapter provide reference to further sources of enlightenment and research. Person-centered Politics proposes an outline for a renewed vision of politics that is centered on the truth of human existence, and not a politics that distorts and suffocates the human spirit, because, in the words of E. Voegelin, ‘the right order of the soul through philosophy furnishes the standard for the right order of society’—and not the other way round.

Is redefining marriage to include same-sex unions simply an act of fairness to gays and lesbians - another step in the evolution to a just society? Or is it a hastily conceived social experiment that will undermine human rights, deflecting marriage from the support of children to the mere affirmation of sexual commitment between adults? central questions: How did Canada come to the point of proposing a redefinition of marriage? Where would redefinition take Canadian society? Do the Charter and equality rights mandate exchanging an opposite-sex institution for one built on the union of two persons? The contributors ask Canadians to pause for reflection and take a closer look at the arguments for and against redefinition of marriage. They implore us to examine the effects of marriage on children, the law, freedom of speech and religion, and society as a whole. science, religion, and culture and include, among others, Margaret Somerville, Ted Morton, F.C. DeCoste, Katherine Young, and Conservative Party MP John McKay.

John Locke's Second Treatise of Government is one of the most influential texts in the history of political theory. It is a staple of undergraduate courses throughout the English-speaking world and continues to inspire and inform contemporary debates in political philosophy. As such, it is a hugely important and exciting, yet challenging, piece of philosophical writing. In Locke's 'Second Treatise of Government': A Reader's Guide, Paul Kelly offers a clear and thorough account of this key philosophical work. The book offers a detailed review of the key themes and a lucid commentary that will enable readers to rapidly navigate the text. Geared towards the specific requirements of students who need to reach a sound understanding of the text as a whole, the guide explores the complex and important ideas inherent in the text and provides a cogent survey of the reception and influence of Locke's seminal work. This is the ideal companion to study of this most influential and challenging of texts.

Calvin Coolidge lived during a time of constitutional transformation – the Progressive Era and World War I – before serving as President of the United States from 1923-1929. Thomas J. Tacoma argues that Coolidge contended with this changing regime and world through as a Burkean conservative and an Americanist politician. In The Political Thought of Calvin Coolidge: Burkean Americanist, Tacoma contextualizes Coolidge’s thought in the Progressive milieu of the age and Coolidge’s own educational background in New England and then presents the core of Coolidge’s political thought: civilization. Tacoma maintains that Coolidge believed in civilization and that the traditional American political and economic order represented the highest achievements in western civilization. Coolidge’s speeches ranged across American history to defend the virtues of the American regime, and in his political career, he undertook to defend the constitutional regime he had inherited. Coolidge, famous for his emphasis on thrift, likewise situated his views on economy within his larger vision of civilization, and he mixed realism and idealism in his developed views on international relations. Through extensive research, Tacoma examines the way Coolidge responded to the challenge of upholding American civilization in the face of a changing world.

There has been a lively debate amongst political theorists about whether certain liberal concepts of democracy are so idealized that they lack relevance to ‘real’ politics. Echoing these debates, Lois McNay examines in this book some theories of radical democracy and argues that they too tend to rely on troubling abstractions - or what she terms ‘socially weightless’ thinking. They often propose ideas of the political that are so far removed from the logic of everyday practice that, ultimately, their supposed emancipatory potential is thrown into question. Radical democrats frequently maintain that what distinguishes their ideas of the political from others is the fundamental concern with unmasking and challenging unrecognized forms of inequality and domination that distort everyday life. But this supposed attentiveness to power is undermined by the invocation of rarefied models of political action that treat agency as an unproblematic given and overlook certain features of the embodied experience of oppression. The tendency of radical democrats to define democratic agency in terms of dynamics of perpetual flux, mobility and agonism passes over too swiftly the way in which objective structures of oppression are often taken into the body as subjective dispositions, leaving individuals with the feeling that they are unable to do little more than endure a state of affairs beyond their control. Drawing on the work of Adorno, Bourdieu and Honneth, amongst others, McNay argues that in order to make good the critique of power, radical democratic theory should attend more closely to a phenomenology of negative social experience and what it can reveal about the social conditions necessary for effective political agency.