How can we distinguish between injustice and misfortune? What can we learn from the victims of calamity about the sense of injustice they harbor? In this book a distinguished political theorist ponder
This book, first published in 1969, is widely regarded as one of the best studies of Rousseau's thought in any language. In it, Professor Shklar examines Rousseau's central concern: given that modern civilisation is intolerable and a return to the state of nature impossible, how is man to arrange his existence in society? Shklar organises the study around Rousseau's two conceptions of Utopia: the Spartan city and the autonomous family group. She emphasises the importance for Rousseau of psychological factors and shows how, when mediated through his images of authority and use of metaphor, they bring him to his notorious view that man is 'everywhere in chains'. In Shklar's view, Rousseau's conclusion is almost equally pessimistic: the chances are very remote that we can overcome the psychological obstacles to become both men and citizens.
The seven deadly sins of Christianity represent the abysses of character, whereas Shklar's "ordinary vices"--cruelty, hypocrisy, snobbery, betrayal, and misanthropy--are merely treacherous shoals, fl
Originally published in 1976, this book was written specifically to guide students of political theory who want to understand Hegel's political ideas as they appear in The Phenomenology of Mind. Professor Shklar's commentary uses plain language and English translations of references wherever possible. The core of Hegel's argument is that freedom is the identity of the personal goals of individual citizens and the public ends of the polity as a whole. This is a dynamic process, in which all laws are created by each and all, and in turn expressed and realised in the minds and actions of every member of society. The text emphasises Hegel's criticism of every type of subjectivity. The failure to recognise the cultural character of all experience is the core of Hegel's critical review of all past philosophy, and led him to develop his own theory of history and of knowledge as retrospective thinking.
In this illuminating look at what constitutes American citizenship, Judith Shklar identifies the right to vote and the right to work as the defining social rights and primary sources of public respect
Well before her untimely death in 1992, Judith Shklar was widely recognized as one of the outstanding political theorists of our time. A pivotal figure in the reinvigoration of liberal theory during t
Noted political philosopher Judith Shklar declined to write a book about American political thought because, she once claimed, "the subject is too hard." She finally took on this formidable
Judith Shklar was for decades one of the most influential professors at Harvard, training generations of some of the best known political theorists working today. She remains one of this century's mos
A compelling set of lectures on political obligation that contributes to ongoing debates in political theory and intellectual history This stimulating collection of lectures by the late Judith
