What is freedom? What are human rights? Are wars ever justified? "Political Philosophy" critically explores these and several related questions with the aim of introducing students to the most important and interesting work in the field. Everyday examples and lively discussion of key political philosophers and their ideas makes "Political Philosophy" an important resource for students coming to the subject for the first time.
Preface.Introduction: What is political philosophy?.Chapter I:
Freedom.Chapter II: Rights.Chapter III: Justice.Chapter IV: Democracy.Chapter
V: Punishment.Chapter VI: Feminism.Chapter VII: Global Justice.Chapter VIII:
Environmentalism.Conclusion.Bibliography.Index..Introduction: What is
political philosophy?.The book will begin with a general essay meant to
introduce the reader to the subject of political philosophy and offer a clear
picture of the kinds of questions political philosophy asks and how it
aspires to provide answers. In general, my focus will not be exclusively on
contemporary political philosophy. Instead, my focus might be best
characterized as on contemporary political philosophy, but informed by its
history..Chapter I: Freedom .The first chapter will examine the topic of
freedom. My main focus will be on the debate between those who hold negative
views of freedom (e.g., Hobbes, Berlin), those who hold positive views of
freedom (e.g., Green, Nussbaum), and alternative views (e.g., MacCallum,
Mill, Frankfurt). First, that I am highly sympathetic to the 'positive' view
of freedom and I will offer a defence of this view. Secondly, I will include
a discussion of Sen's and Nussbaum's capabilities approach (in my view, too
often neglected in books of this kind) and include it as one variant of
positive freedom..Chapter II: Rights.The second chapter will focus on rights.
It will begin by discussing the beginning of rights theorizing, arising with
natural rights theorists (e.g., Hobbes, Locke) and its development and
connection with modern human rights. Other important figures, such as Wesley
Hohfeld, will be discussed leading to a sympathetic view of Leif Wenar's
several functions theory of rights. Following Wenar, my argument will be that
there is way out of the interest theory versus will theory debate. This way
out is a recognition that rights have more than one function, an insight we
can find in earlier writers, such as Hegel and T. H. Green, and developed
much further since by Wenar. Throughout the chapter, I will raise several
questions: Why are rights important? How do we know a right when we see one?
Are there too many rights?.Chapter III: Justice
Thom Brooks is Reader in Political and Legal Philosophy at the University of Newcastle. He is the author of Hegel's Political Philosophy: A Systematic Reading of the Philosophy of Right (Edinburgh UP, 2007), Punishment (Routledge, 2008), Global Justice (Blackwell, forthcoming), and more than thirty articles in political and moral philosophy in journals, such as Bulletin of the Hegel Society of Great Britain, Georgia State University Law Review, History of Political Thought, Journal of Applied Philosophy, Journal of Social Philosophy, Philosophy, Ratio, Rutgers Law Record, Utilitas, and several others. Brooks is editor of the Journal of Moral Philosophy and several books, including Rousseau and Law (Ashgate, 2005), The Legacy of John Rawls (with Fabian Freyenhagen, 2005, 2nd ed 2007), Locke and Law (Ashgate, 2007), The Global Justice Reader (Blackwell, 2008), and Hegel's Political Philosophy (Blackwell, forthcoming). He is an elected member of the American Philosophical Association's Committee on Philosophy and Law, the Hegel Society of Great Britain's Council, and the executive board of the Political Studies Association.
