Political Theory and ModernityModernity is marked by acrimonious debate over the form of the good society and the proper shape of politics. But these struggles are set within a frame that supports some arguments and rules other possibilities out of contention. If late-modernity is a time of danger as well as significant achievement, it is necessary to ask: how can we become more reflective about the economies of thought that have governed modern political discourse? William Connolly clarifies the affinities binding together disparate theorists who have sought to comprehend the shape and prospects of modernity. He reveals how thinkers adamantly opposed to one another at one level implicitly share assumptions and demands at a more basic level; and invites Nietzsche - the thinker who disturbs modern theories by assessing them from the hypothetical perspective of a non-modern future - to expose patterns of insistence inside the theories of his predecessors. |
Contents
The Order of Modernity | 1 |
A madman speaks | 7 |
The Politics of Divine Containment | 16 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
absolute knowledge affirm ambiguity Augustine Augustinian become civil society commands common consciousness contemporary contest contingent culture debate defined demand democratic dialectic difference discern discourse divine elements enables endorse Enlightenment essence established ethic expression faith fosters freedom Friedrich Nietzsche G. W. F. Hegel Gay Science genealogy Genealogy of Morals God's Hegel and Marx Hegelian Hobbes and Rousseau Hobbesian hunchback Ibid ideal identity imperative individual insistence interior internal intrinsic Jean-Jacques Rousseau late-modern madness mastery mode modern nature Nietzsche Nietzschean nihilism norms obedience ontology of Spirit paradox passions pauperism perhaps perspective philosophy political theory pornography possibility Press presumptions principle of subjectivity problem of evil problematic quest question R. J. Hollingdale rationality reading realized reason relations resentment resistance response revenge Rousseauian Sade seeks self-consciousness self-interest selfhood slave morality social Sophocles sovereign sovereignty standards susceptible texts thinkers thought trans transcend truth unity University virtue Walter Kaufmann Zizek