The Politics of Moralizing

Front Cover
Jane Bennett, Michael J. Shapiro
Routledge, Sep 13, 2013 - Philosophy - 264 pages
The Politics of Moralizing issues a stern warning about the risks of speaking, writing, and thinking in a manner too confident about one's own judgments and asks, "Can a clear line be drawn between dogmatism and simple certainty and indignation?" Bennett and Shapiro enter the debate by questioning what has become a popular, even pervasive, cultural narrative told by both the left and the right: the story of the West's moral decline, degeneration, or confusion. Contributors explore the dynamics and dilemmas of moralizing by advocates of patriotism, environmental protection, and women's rights while arguing that the current discourse gives free license to self-aggrandizement, cruelty, vengeance and punitiveness and a generalized resistance to or abjection of diversity.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
Chapter One The Moraline Drift
11
Chapter Two Generating a Virtuous Circle
27
Chapter Three Political not Patriotic
63
Chapter Four Autobiography and Cultivating the Arts of the Female Self
93
Chapter Five The Tragedy of the Ethical Commons
113
Chapter Six Out for a Walk
141
Chapter Seven Just the Facts Please
183
Chapter Eight The Challenge of Polytheism
201
Chapter Nine Affirming the Political
223
Contributors
243
Index
245
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About the author (2013)

Michael Shapiro is Professor of Political Science at the University of Hawaii. Jane Bennett is Professor of Political Science at Goucher College.

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