A Call to Dissent: Defending Democracy Against Extremism and Populism

by Stuart Sim

Overview

Dogmatism, prejudice and bigotry are becoming ever more evident on the contemporary political scene and dissent is one of their main targets. The Politics of Dissent explores the negative impact this shift is having on public life, with radically-oriented governments striving to close down dissenting voices in both their political opponents and the mainstream media. It defends dissent as a critical element in the democratic process which ought to be encouraged instead of allowing ourselves to fall into an state of despair, as is increasingly occurring on the political left in the face of the dramatic rise of right-wing populism. The concept is explored in a wide sense to identify how it works in philosophy, religion, science and the arts as well as in politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474494946
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	05/04/2022
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	5.43(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Stuart Sim is retired Professor of Critical Theory at Northumbria University. He has published widely on critical theory, and is a Fellow of the English Association. Amongst his recent publications are The Lyotard Dictionary (2011), Addicted to Profit: Reclaiming Our Lives from the Free Market (2012), Fifty Key Postmodern Thinkers (2013), and, with Brett Wilson and Barbara Hawkins (eds) Art, Science & Cultural Understanding (2014).

Table of Contents

1. Dissent Under Threat
2. The State and Dissent: The Limits of Democracy
3. The Philosophy of Dissent
4. Religious Dissent
5. Dissent in the Sciences
6. Aesthetic Dissent
7. Internal Dissent: The Case for Self-Critique

Editorial Reviews

The book is an extended polemic urging an attitude and a practice of dissent in politics, religion, science, aesthetics, and even one’s own self-understanding. Sim (critical theory, Northumbria Univ., UK) writes from a general postmodern perspective represented prominently by Derrida and Lyotard, but the book can be read profitably by those with any nondogmatic perspective. Summing Up: Recommended. Undergraduates and general readers.

CHOICE - H. Oberdiek

This is a vital book from a recognised, esteemed authority in the area of philosophy, and political and cultural studies. Not only does it provide an invaluable and acute analysis of our contemporary political situation, but by sounding a warning against a culture of complaisance, it issues an invitation to dissent, which is the animating principle of all democracy.

Keith Crome