skip to content
Political theory for mortals : shades of justice, images of death Preview this item
ClosePreview this item
  • Preview this Item (Questia)

Political theory for mortals : shades of justice, images of death

Author: John Evan Seery
Publisher: Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 1996.
Series: Contestations.
Edition/Format:   Book : EnglishView all editions and formats
Summary:
Despite an abundance of violence occurring in political contexts, no liberal political theorist since Thomas Hobbes has talked directly and coherently about death. John E. Seery does. He contends that liberalism desperately needs a theoretical framework in which to discuss pressing matters of human mortality. Among the contemporary political issues that cry out for theoretical articulation, Seery suggests, are
Rating:

(not yet rated) 0 with reviews - Be the first.

 

Find a copy in the library

Retrieving... Finding libraries that hold this item...

Details

Additional Physical Format: Online version:
Seery, John Evan.
Political theory for mortals.
Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 1996
(OCoLC)604596030
Online version:
Seery, John Evan.
Political theory for mortals.
Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 1996
(OCoLC)610073984
Document Type: Book
All Authors / Contributors: John Evan Seery
ISBN: 0801432596 9780801432590 080148376X 9780801483769
OCLC Number: 34474344
Description: viii, 230 p. ; 24 cm.
Series Title: Contestations.
Responsibility: John E. Seery.

Abstract:

Despite an abundance of violence occurring in political contexts, no liberal political theorist since Thomas Hobbes has talked directly and coherently about death. John E. Seery does. He contends that liberalism desperately needs a theoretical framework in which to discuss pressing matters of human mortality. Among the contemporary political issues that cry out for theoretical articulation, Seery suggests, are abortion politics, ethnic cleansing, suicide assistance, national reparations, environmental degradation, and capital punishment. Seery offers a new conception of social contract theory as a framework for confronting death issues. He urges us to look to an older tradition of descent into an underworld, wherein classic theorists consulted poetically with the dead and acquired from them political insight and direction.

In this lively book, Seery excavates the infernal tradition by rereading the politics of death in Platonism, early Christianity, and contemporary feminism. Building on those traditions, he proposes a new, constructive image of death that can serve democratic theory productively. Reconsidered from the "land of the shades," social contractarian theory is sufficiently altered that, for example, a pro-life Christian and a pro-choice secularist might be able to strike common ground upon which to discuss abortion politics.

Reviews

User-contributed reviews
Retrieving weRead reviews...
Retrieving GoodReads reviews...
Retrieving Amazon reviews...

Tags

Be the first.
Confirm this request

You may have already requested this item. Please select Ok if you would like to proceed with this request anyway.

Close Window

Please sign in to WorldCat 

Don't have an account? You can easily create a free account.