Readings in Social and Political Philosophy / Edition 2

by Robert M. Stewart

Overview

This updated edition of a well-established anthology of social and political philosophy combines extensive selections from classical works with significant recent contributions to the field, many of which are not easily available. Its central focus is on the liberal currents in modern Western political thought—variants of classical liberalism, modern liberalism, and libertarianism—with specific focus on differing conceptions of political obligation, freedom, distributive justice, and representative democracy.
The text is organized into four thematic sections: Political Obligation and Consent, Freedom and Coercion, Justice and Equality, and Democracy and Representation, making it easily accessible to students. Each chapter features selections from classical thinkers alongside writings by influential contemporary philosophers and political theorists, thus tracing the historical development and transformation of Western political thought on key issues in the field. Among the classical authors represented in this collection are Plato, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Mill. Contemporary contributors include John Rawls, Isaiah Berlin, Thomas Scanlon, Robert Nozick, Thomas Nagel, Ronald Dworkin, and Hanna Pitkin. Each section is preceded by an introductory overview and followed by a helpful, current bibliography providing guides to further reading.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195095180
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/15/1996
Edition description:	REV
Pages:	472
Product dimensions:	9.25(w) x 6.50(h) x 0.82(d)

About the Author

California State University at Chico

Table of Contents

I. Political Obligation and Consent
Crito, Plato
From Second Treatise of Civil Government, John Locke
Of the Original Contract, David Hume
Obligation and Consent, II, Hanna F. Pitkin
The Principle of Fair Play, A. John Simmons
II. Freedom and Coercion
Of the Liberty of Subjects, Thomas Hobbes
Two Concepts of Liberty, Isaiah Berlin
What's Wrong with Negative Liberty, Charles Taylor
From "On Liberty", John Stuart Mill
The "Open Society" and Its Fallacies, Willmoore Kendall
Freedom of Expression and Categories of Expression, Thomas M. Scanlon, Jr.
Liberty and Harm to Others, David Lyons
We Do Not Have a Right To Liberty, Ronald Dworkin
III. Justice and Equality
From Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
A Kantian Conception of Equality, John Rawls
Distributive Justice, John Rawls
Distributive Justice, Robert Nozick
Liberty, Contract, and Contribution, Thomas K. Scanlon, Jr.
Equality, Thomas Nagel
Communitarian and Liberal Theories of the Good, Jeffrey Paul and Fred D. Miller, Jr.
Responsibility, Reactive Attitudes, and Liberalism in Philosophy and Politics, Samuel Scheffler
The Domain of the Political and Overlapping Consensus, John Rawls
IV. Democracy and Representation
From Considerations on Representative Government, John Stuart Mill
Open Government and Just Legislation: A Defense of Democracy, William N. Nelson
A Paradox in the Theory of Democracy, Richard Wollheim
Democracy Without Preference, David M. Estlund
Losing the Faith: Feminism and Democracy, Susan Mendus
Political Representation, Hanna F. Pitkin
Implementing Representation: A Framework and Two Applications, Bruce F. Cain and W.T. Jones

Editorial Reviews

"Excellent collection, both in editing of individual selections and in the relationship between classic and contemporary texts."—Jeffrey G. Seward, University of Texas at San Antonio (on the previous edition)

From the Publisher