Rethinking Modern Political Theory

Fülszöveg

why is modern political theory philosophically so feeble and politically so unconvincing? The essays in this volume - several of which are published here for the first time - explore the historical sources of these weaknesses in the modern understanding of pohtics and suggest ways in which they might be remedied.
The essays in Part I are historical. The first two concentrate on Locke's political thought and show this to provide a penetrating critique of crucial assumptions in much subsequent theory. The third examines the transition in the eighteenth century from his theocentric conception of the fundamental nature of human life to the modern, more anthropocentric understanding of politics. Parts 11 and III explore two different versions of this instabihty. Dunn argues that the disappearance of this common theocentric framework has fatally weakened the cogency of any determinate universal theory of rights and that, in doing so it has reduced the core of political theory to a... Tovább

Fülszöveg

why is modern political theory philosophically so feeble and politically so unconvincing? The essays in this volume - several of which are published here for the first time - explore the historical sources of these weaknesses in the modern understanding of pohtics and suggest ways in which they might be remedied.
The essays in Part I are historical. The first two concentrate on Locke's political thought and show this to provide a penetrating critique of crucial assumptions in much subsequent theory. The third examines the transition in the eighteenth century from his theocentric conception of the fundamental nature of human life to the modern, more anthropocentric understanding of politics. Parts 11 and III explore two different versions of this instabihty. Dunn argues that the disappearance of this common theocentric framework has fatally weakened the cogency of any determinate universal theory of rights and that, in doing so it has reduced the core of political theory to a highly unstable balance between individual and collective prudence.
Part II focusses on the Marxist tradition of political action, in particular on theoretical weaknesses which have betrayed the tradition of Marxist-Leninist pohtics both as a revolutionary and as a genuinely internationalist creed. In Part III John Dunn returns to the history of Western political theory and examines the imphcations for it of recent philosophy. His conclusion is that the defects and the political inadequacy of modern conceptions of practical reason stand in the way of a political philosophy of any power. Only a thorough examination of the historical background, as well as the practical relations between states, societies and economies in the modern world stands any chance of producing an adequate theory of collective prudence.
Cover design by Sebastian Carter Vissza