Critical Rationalism and Globalization addresses how the access to critical reason enables people to shape a new social order on a global scale. This book demonstrates how the philosophy of critical rationalism contributes to the sociology of Globalization, through uncovering the role of critical reason in arriving at an agreement on common values and institutions on a global scale. It discusses how value consensus on the institutions of sovereignty and inter–state law has prepared the ground for the rise of a global system of national societies after the end of World War II. Masoud Alamuti argues that uneven openness of national economies to global trade and investment should be comprehended in the framework of the post–war legal and political context. Using the concept of rationality as openness to criticism, the book proposes a normative theory of open global society in order to show that the existing value consensus on the cult of sovereignty suffers from the recognition of the possibility of rational dialogue among competing ways of the good life. Masoud Alamuti argues that once the people of the world, across national communities, open their fundamental ways of the good life to mutual criticism, they can create common global values necessary for the rise of a just social order on a global scale. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Globalization Studies, Global Sociology and International Relations.

These essays, written in the 1930s and 1940s, represent a first selection in English from the major work of the founder of the famous Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt. Horkheimer's writings are essential to an understanding of the intellectual background of the New Left and the to much current social-philosophical thought, including the work of Herbert Marcuse. Apart from their historical significance and even from their scholarly eminence, these essays contain an immediate relevance only now becoming fully recognized.

The book examines the growing tension between social movements that embrace egalitarian and inclusivist views of national and global politics, most notably classical liberalism, and those that advance social hierarchy and national exclusivism, such as neoliberalism, neoconservatism, and national populism. In exploring issues relating to tensions and conflicts around globalization, the book identifies historical patterns of convergence and divergence rooted in the monotheistic traditions, beginning with the ancient Israelites that dominated the Near East during the Axial age, through Islamic civilization, and finally by considering the idealism-realism tensions in modern times. One thing remained constant throughout the various historical stages that preceded our current moment of global convergence: a recurring tension between transcendental idealism and various forms of realism. Transcendental idealism, which prioritize egalitarian and universal values, pushed periodically against the forces of realism that privilege established law and power structure. Equipped with the idealism-realism framework, the book examines the consequences of European realism that justified the imperialistic venture into Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America in the name of liberation and liberalization. The ill-conceived strategy has, ironically, engendered the very dysfunctional societies that produce the waves of immigrants in constant motion from the South to the North, simultaneously as it fostered the social hierarchy that transfer external tensions into identity politics within the countries of the North. The book focuses particularly on the role played historically by Islamic rationalism in translating the monotheistic egalitarian outlook into the institutions of religious pluralism, legislative and legal autonomy, and scientific enterprise at the foundation of modern society. It concludes by shedding light on the significance of the Muslim presence in Western cultures as humanity draws slowly but consistently towards what we may come to recognize as the Global Age. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003203360, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

In 1999, John Ralston Saul began predicting that globalism would collapse. In 2005, he laid out this scenario in The Collapse of Globalism: and the Reinvention of the World Now he has enlarged the book, showing how today's crisis came about and suggesting what to do next. In this new edition, Saul describes the current financial crisis as a mere boil to be lanced. The far more serious problem is that the West—driven by most of its economists, managers, consultants, and columnists—remains stuck on outdated ideas of growth, wealth creation, and trade expansion. They are still trying to limit the debate to a narrow choice between protectionism and free trade and are concentrated on old-fashioned stimulation. Public policy has been dominated by the people who created this crisis. Saul envisions a new sort of wealth creation and growth, and in place of reaction, advocates new forms of action.

Available in English for the first time, a masterwork by Enrique Dussel, one of the world's foremost philosophers, and a cornerstone of the philosophy of liberation, which he helped to found and develop.

This text provides a new approach to examining questions of modernization and modernity. It overhauls existing theories and concepts and applies them to the new social and economic conditions that define our age.

It is now more than fifty years since the United Nations system and the Bretton Woods institutions were created. The world has changed since then, and so have its governance needs in terms of institutions and rules. It is time to think about the contours of institutions and governance that would meet the needs of the world economy, and also polity, at least for the first quarter of the twenty-first century. This book is among the first to examine the subject in depth. The study is divided into four parts. The first situates the subject in the wider context of globalization which has shaped development in the world economy, affected the living conditions of people, and constrained the role of nation states. The international context and the national setting are explored. The second part analyses some issues of emerging significance in the contemporary world, such as global macroeconomic management, transnational corporations, international capital flows, and cross-border movements of people, to suggest that there are some missing institutions which are needed. The third part provides a critical evaluation of the existing institutions, in retrospect, with a focus on the UN, the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO. It analyses how existing rules need to be modified or existing institutions need to be restructured to meet the present and future needs of global governance. The fourth part explores some important elements of governance which are critical for any vision of the future. It suggests some changes in existing institutions and points to emerging governance needs where new institutions may have to be created. This authoritative volume will be of value to readers with an interest in international economics, development economics, and international relations. It will also be of value to practitioners, both policy-makers and diplomats, concerned with problems of global governance, and should become the standard reference on the subject.

Since its initial publication, this highly respected text has provided students with a critical review of the major research paradigms in the social sciences and the logics or strategies of enquiry associated with them. This second edition has been revised and updated.