Vexed: Ethics Beyond Political Tribes

by James Mumford

Overview

In Vexed, James Mumford tackles the polarization of civil society across the democratic West, taking a fresh look at the existential questions and "hot button" issues that are an essential part of the politics of the Left and Right. In examining issues like the "right-to-die" movement and assisted suicide, family values and economic injustice, sexual liberation and consent, gun-control and abortion, the environment and technology, criminal justice and reform, Mumford questions the basic assumptions of our political groups. His challenge is simple: "Why should believing strongly about one topic mean the automatic adoption of so many others?"

With this refreshing and eye-opening book, James Mumford, a public thinker and independent commentator, has written an essential and provocative account that will appeal to anyone of independent thought, and a welcome call for new reflection on the moral issues most relevant to our modern way of life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472966346
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	05/05/2020
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	780,304
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

James Mumford lives in London and is a fellow at the University of Virginia's Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. He received his PhD from Oxford University and was a Henry fellow at Yale where his graduate studies were in political philosophy and religion. He writes for the Guardian, New Statesman, The Atlantic, Spectator, Daily Telegraph and the Times Literary Supplement.

@JamesACMumford / jamesmumford.co.uk

Table of Contents

Introduction: Package-Deal Ethics 1

1 Inclusivity: Should Liberals Back Assisted Suicide? 15

2 Family Values: Why Social Conservatives Should Raise Wages 44

3 Sufficiency: Why the Left and Sexual Liberation Make Bad Bedfellows 69

4 The Sanctity of Life: What's Pro-Life about an AR-15? 96

5 Reverence for Nature: Why Greens Shouldn't Become Cyborgs 121

6 Personal Responsibility: Why the Right Should Release Ex-Offenders 148

Conclusion: Moral Imagination 169

Acknowledgements 189

Notes 191

Permissions 209

Index 210

Editorial Reviews

03/30/2020

Knotty partisan issues get an energetic rethink in this wide-ranging treatise in applied political ethics. Political philosopher Mumford (Ethics at the Beginning of Life) critiques ideological “package deals” —conservatives are pro-guns and antiabortion, for example, while liberals are antigun and pro-choice—by exposing the contradictions in a haphazard selection of policy stances. On the left, he argues, liberals’ support for physician-assisted suicide contradicts their commitment to protecting marginalized groups (namely sick, lonely old people), while modern hookup culture is a form of soulless sexual consumerism that progressives should deplore instead of condone. (“I want her to get to a nunnery,” he jokes of his own daughter.) On the right, he contends, conservatives’ “family values” clash with their resistance to unions that stabilize working-class families by improving wages and working conditions, while their support for legal restrictions on ex-convicts in hiring, voting, and renting undermines their ethos of personal responsibility. Mumford’s analyses are animated and fair-minded, but not always original; his claim that conservative pro-lifers should want to protect postpartum life through gun control, for example, is an old one that has persuaded few Second Amendment stalwarts. Mumford’s thought-provoking argument for ethical consistency fails to knock loose the entrenched dogmas fueling today’s political antagonisms. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Mumford demonstrates an admirable ability to zero in on things too often missing from political conversations … A plea for nuance and ambivalence, in a world that often seems to be in danger of mislaying both.” —John Harris, Observer

“James Mumford has written the most intriguing and original reflection on political tribalism that I have ever read ... Vexed is an intellectual page-turner.” —David Goodhart, author of The Road to Somewhere: The New Tribes Shaping British Politics


"Mumford is a subtle, supple and frequently ingenious thinker. His style is abrasive enough to make readers sit up when needed, but never enough to make us feel as if we are being hectored or bullied … A memorable and illuminating assault on what happens when ideology shuts down thought." - Catholic Herald

“A thought-provoking exploration of some of the most contentious problems of our time” —Sunday Times


“An important contribution to understanding the polarization of our global politics from one of the most exciting young ethicists working today” —James Davison Hunter, Labrosse-Levenson Professor, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia and author of Culture Wars

“Lively, well argued ... help[s] us understand aspects of tribalism” —Financial Times

"Fascinating ... Supplies readers with ample food for thought and opportunities to reconsider and broaden their own perspective." - Vision

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