The Tyranny of the Ideal

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Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691183422
Total Pages : 314 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis The Tyranny of the Ideal by : Gerald Gaus

Download or read book The Tyranny of the Ideal written by Gerald Gaus and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-08 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his provocative new book, The Tyranny of the Ideal, Gerald Gaus lays out a vision for how we should theorize about justice in a diverse society. Gaus shows how free and equal people, faced with intractable struggles and irreconcilable conflicts, might share a common moral life shaped by a just framework. He argues that if we are to take diversity seriously and if moral inquiry is sincere about shaping the world, then the pursuit of idealized and perfect theories of justice—essentially, the entire production of theories of justice that has dominated political philosophy for the past forty years—needs to change. Drawing on recent work in social science and philosophy, Gaus points to an important paradox: only those in a heterogeneous society—with its various religious, moral, and political perspectives—have a reasonable hope of understanding what an ideally just society would be like. However, due to its very nature, this world could never be collectively devoted to any single ideal. Gaus defends the moral constitution of this pluralistic, open society, where the very clash and disagreement of ideals spurs all to better understand what their personal ideals of justice happen to be. Presenting an original framework for how we should think about morality, The Tyranny of the Ideal rigorously analyzes a theory of ideal justice more suitable for contemporary times.

The Tyranny of Merit

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Author :
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 0374720991
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (747 download)

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Book Synopsis The Tyranny of Merit by : Michael J. Sandel

Download or read book The Tyranny of Merit written by Michael J. Sandel and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Times Literary Supplement’s Book of the Year 2020 A New Statesman's Best Book of 2020 A Bloomberg's Best Book of 2020 A Guardian Best Book About Ideas of 2020 The world-renowned philosopher and author of the bestselling Justice explores the central question of our time: What has become of the common good? These are dangerous times for democracy. We live in an age of winners and losers, where the odds are stacked in favor of the already fortunate. Stalled social mobility and entrenched inequality give the lie to the American credo that "you can make it if you try". The consequence is a brew of anger and frustration that has fueled populist protest and extreme polarization, and led to deep distrust of both government and our fellow citizens--leaving us morally unprepared to face the profound challenges of our time. World-renowned philosopher Michael J. Sandel argues that to overcome the crises that are upending our world, we must rethink the attitudes toward success and failure that have accompanied globalization and rising inequality. Sandel shows the hubris a meritocracy generates among the winners and the harsh judgement it imposes on those left behind, and traces the dire consequences across a wide swath of American life. He offers an alternative way of thinking about success--more attentive to the role of luck in human affairs, more conducive to an ethic of humility and solidarity, and more affirming of the dignity of work. The Tyranny of Merit points us toward a hopeful vision of a new politics of the common good.

The Tyranny of Generosity

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0197611419
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (976 download)

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Book Synopsis The Tyranny of Generosity by : Theodore M. Lechterman

Download or read book The Tyranny of Generosity written by Theodore M. Lechterman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-29 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The practice of philanthropy, which releases private property for public purposes, represents in many ways the best angels of our nature. But this practice's noteworthy virtues often obscure the fact that philanthropy also represents the exercise of private power. In The Tyranny of Generosity, Theodore Lechterman shows how this private power can threaten the foundations of a democratic society. The deployment of private wealth for public ends may rival the authority of communities to determine their own affairs. And, in societies characterized by wide disparities in wealth, philanthropy often combines with background inequalities to make public decisions overwhelmingly sensitive to the preferences of the rich. Allowing private wealth to dictate social outcomes collides with core commitments of a democratic society, a society in which people are supposed to determine their common affairs together, on equal terms. But why exactly is democracy valuable? How should these values be weighed against the liberty of donors and the many social benefits that philanthropy promises? Lechterman explores these questions by examining various topics in the practice of philanthropy: the respective roles of philanthropy and government, public subsidies for private giving, the use of donations for political speech, instruments of perpetual giving, the rise in giving by commercial corporations, and effective altruism as a guide for individual giving. These studies build to a surprising conclusion: realizing the democratic ideal may be impossible without philanthropy--but making philanthropy safe for democracy also requires fundamental changes to policy and practice.

The Tyranny of Virtue

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Author :
Publisher : Scribner
ISBN 13 : 198212718X
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (821 download)

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Book Synopsis The Tyranny of Virtue by : Robert Boyers

Download or read book The Tyranny of Virtue written by Robert Boyers and published by Scribner. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From public intellectual and professor Robert Boyers, a thought-provoking volume of nine essays that elegantly and fiercely addresses recent developments in American culture and argues for the tolerance of difference that is at the heart of the liberal tradition. Written from the perspective of a liberal intellectual who has spent a lifetime as a writer, editor, and college professor, The Tyranny of Virtue is a precise and nuanced insider’s look at shifts in American culture—most especially in the American academy—that so many people find alarming. Part memoir and part polemic, an anatomy of important and dangerous ideas, and a cri de coeur lamenting the erosion of standard liberal values, Boyers’s collection of essays is devoted to such subjects as tolerance, identity, privilege, appropriation, diversity, and ableism that have turned academic life into a minefield. Why, Robert Boyers asks, are a great many liberals, people who should know better, invested in the drawing up of enemies lists and driven by the conviction that on critical issues no dispute may be tolerated? In stories, anecdotes, and character profiles, a public intellectual and longtime professor takes on those in his own progressive cohort who labor in the grip of a poisonous and illiberal fundamentalism. The end result is a finely tuned work of cultural intervention from the front lines.

There's a Hole in My Sidewalk

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Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1582703779
Total Pages : 146 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (827 download)

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Book Synopsis There's a Hole in My Sidewalk by : Portia Nelson

Download or read book There's a Hole in My Sidewalk written by Portia Nelson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-02-21 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Designed to inspire self-discovery, "There's a Hole in My Sidewalk" contains more than 100 touching poems that gently guide readers to a more authentic and fulfilling life.

Green Tyranny

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Publisher : Encounter Books
ISBN 13 : 1641770457
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (417 download)

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Book Synopsis Green Tyranny by : Rupert Darwall

Download or read book Green Tyranny written by Rupert Darwall and published by Encounter Books. This book was released on 2019-03-26 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rupert Darwall’s Green Tyranny traces the alarming origins of the green agenda, revealing how environmental scares have been deployed by our global rivals as a political instrument to contest American power around the world. Drawing on extensive historical and policy analysis, this timely and provocative book offers a lucid history of environmental alarmism and failed policies, explaining how “scientific consensus” is manufactured and abused by politicians with duplicitous motives and totalitarian tendencies.

A Tyranny of Queens

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Author :
Publisher : Watkins Media Limited
ISBN 13 : 0857665898
Total Pages : 432 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (576 download)

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Book Synopsis A Tyranny of Queens by : Foz Meadows

Download or read book A Tyranny of Queens written by Foz Meadows and published by Watkins Media Limited. This book was released on 2017-05-02 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Embark on another “nerve-biting and explosive” adventure between worlds in this refreshingly intersectional portal fantasy for adult readers (Tor.com) Saffron Coulter has returned from the fantasy kingdom of Kena. Threatened with a stay in psychiatric care, Saffron has to make a choice: to forget about Kena and fit back into the life she’s outgrown—or pit herself against everything she’s ever known and everyone she loves. Meanwhile, in Kena, Gwen is increasingly troubled by the absence of Leoden—the cruel ruler of the kingdom—and his plans for the captive worldwalkers. Elsewhere, Yena must confront the deposed Kadeja in Veksh. What is their endgame? Who can they trust? And what will happen when Leoden returns?

The Tyranny of Socialism ...

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 316 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis The Tyranny of Socialism ... by : Yves Guyot

Download or read book The Tyranny of Socialism ... written by Yves Guyot and published by . This book was released on 1894 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Trick Mirror

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Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 0525510559
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (255 download)

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Book Synopsis Trick Mirror by : Jia Tolentino

Download or read book Trick Mirror written by Jia Tolentino and published by Random House. This book was released on 2019-08-06 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “From The New Yorker’s beloved cultural critic comes a bold, unflinching collection of essays about self-deception, examining everything from scammer culture to reality television.”—Esquire Book Club Pick for Now Read This, from PBS NewsHour and The New York Times • “A whip-smart, challenging book.”—Zadie Smith • “Jia Tolentino could be the Joan Didion of our time.”—Vulture FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE’S JOHN LEONARD PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST BOOK • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY AND HARVARD CRIMSON AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Time • Chicago Tribune • The Washington Post • NPR • Variety • Esquire • Vox • Elle • Glamour • GQ • Good Housekeeping • The Paris Review • Paste • Town & Country • BookPage • Kirkus Reviews • BookRiot • Shelf Awareness Jia Tolentino is a peerless voice of her generation, tackling the conflicts, contradictions, and sea changes that define us and our time. Now, in this dazzling collection of nine entirely original essays, written with a rare combination of give and sharpness, wit and fearlessness, she delves into the forces that warp our vision, demonstrating an unparalleled stylistic potency and critical dexterity. Trick Mirror is an enlightening, unforgettable trip through the river of self-delusion that surges just beneath the surface of our lives. This is a book about the incentives that shape us, and about how hard it is to see ourselves clearly through a culture that revolves around the self. In each essay, Tolentino writes about a cultural prism: the rise of the nightmare social internet; the advent of scamming as the definitive millennial ethos; the literary heroine’s journey from brave to blank to bitter; the punitive dream of optimization, which insists that everything, including our bodies, should become more efficient and beautiful until we die. Gleaming with Tolentino’s sense of humor and capacity to elucidate the impossibly complex in an instant, and marked by her desire to treat the reader with profound honesty, Trick Mirror is an instant classic of the worst decade yet. FINALIST FOR THE PEN/DIAMONSTEIN-SPIELVOGEL AWARD FOR THE ART OF THE ESSAY

A Wolf in the City

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190678860
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (96 download)

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Book Synopsis A Wolf in the City by : Cinzia Arruzza

Download or read book A Wolf in the City written by Cinzia Arruzza and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-09-26 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The problem of tyranny preoccupied Plato, and its discussion both begins and ends his famous Republic. Though philosophers have mined the Republic for millennia, Cinzia Arruzza is the first to devote a full book to the study of tyranny and of the tyrant's soul in Plato's Republic. In A Wolf in the City, Arruzza argues that Plato's critique of tyranny intervenes in an ancient debate concerning the sources of the crisis of Athenian democracy and the relation between political leaders and demos in the last decades of the fifth century BCE. Arruzza shows that Plato's critique of tyranny should not be taken as veiled criticism of the Syracusan tyrannical regime, but rather of Athenian democracy. In parsing Plato's discussion of the soul of the tyrant, Arruzza will also offer new and innovative insights into his moral psychology, addressing much-debated problems such as the nature of eros and of the spirited part of the soul, the unity or disunity of the soul, and the relation between the non-rational parts of the soul and reason.

A Gentle Tyranny

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Author :
Publisher : Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
ISBN 13 : 1496448332
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (964 download)

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Book Synopsis A Gentle Tyranny by : Jess Corban

Download or read book A Gentle Tyranny written by Jess Corban and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2021 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Nedé--a safe haven for women--seventeen-year-old Reina draws strength from a forbidden friendship when torn between her formidable grandmother and her mother as she faces a decision that could change their world.

The Tyranny of Guilt

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691154309
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis The Tyranny of Guilt by : Pascal Bruckner

Download or read book The Tyranny of Guilt written by Pascal Bruckner and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-04-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why the West must overcome its guilty conscience to foster a better global future Fascism, communism, genocide, slavery, racism, imperialism—the West has no shortage of reasons for guilt. And, indeed, since the Holocaust and the end of World War II, Europeans in particular have been consumed by remorse. But Pascal Bruckner argues that guilt has now gone too far. It has become a pathology, and even an obstacle to fighting today's atrocities. Bruckner, one of France's leading writers and public intellectuals, argues that obsessive guilt has obscured important realities. The West has no monopoly on evil, and has destroyed monsters as well as created them—leading in the abolition of slavery, renouncing colonialism, building peaceful and prosperous communities, and establishing rules and institutions that are models for the world. The West should be proud—and ready to defend itself and its values. In this, Europeans should learn from Americans, who still have sufficient self-esteem to act decisively in a world of chaos and violence. Lamenting the vice of anti-Americanism that grips so many European intellectuals, Bruckner urges a renewed transatlantic alliance, and advises Americans not to let recent foreign-policy misadventures sap their own confidence. This is a searing, provocative, and psychologically penetrating account of the crude thought and bad politics that arise from excessive bad conscience.

Democracy in America (Complete)

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Publisher : Library of Alexandria
ISBN 13 : 1613105002
Total Pages : 1320 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (131 download)

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Book Synopsis Democracy in America (Complete) by : Alexis de Tocqueville

Download or read book Democracy in America (Complete) written by Alexis de Tocqueville and published by Library of Alexandria. This book was released on 2020-09-28 with total page 1320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amongst the novel objects that attracted my attention during my stay in the United States, nothing struck me more forcibly than the general equality of conditions. I readily discovered the prodigious influence which this primary fact exercises on the whole course of society, by giving a certain direction to public opinion, and a certain tenor to the laws; by imparting new maxims to the governing powers, and peculiar habits to the governed. I speedily perceived that the influence of this fact extends far beyond the political character and the laws of the country, and that it has no less empire over civil society than over the Government; it creates opinions, engenders sentiments, suggests the ordinary practices of life, and modifies whatever it does not produce. The more I advanced in the study of American society, the more I perceived that the equality of conditions is the fundamental fact from which all others seem to be derived, and the central point at which all my observations constantly terminated. I then turned my thoughts to our own hemisphere, where I imagined that I discerned something analogous to the spectacle which the New World presented to me. I observed that the equality of conditions is daily progressing towards those extreme limits which it seems to have reached in the United States, and that the democracy which governs the American communities appears to be rapidly rising into power in Europe. I hence conceived the idea of the book which is now before the reader. It is evident to all alike that a great democratic revolution is going on amongst us; but there are two opinions as to its nature and consequences. To some it appears to be a novel accident, which as such may still be checked; to others it seems irresistible, because it is the most uniform, the most ancient, and the most permanent tendency which is to be found in history. Let us recollect the situation of France seven hundred years ago, when the territory was divided amongst a small number of families, who were the owners of the soil and the rulers of the inhabitants; the right of governing descended with the family inheritance from generation to generation; force was the only means by which man could act on man, and landed property was the sole source of power. Soon, however, the political power of the clergy was founded, and began to exert itself: the clergy opened its ranks to all classes, to the poor and the rich, the villein and the lord; equality penetrated into the Government through the Church, and the being who as a serf must have vegetated in perpetual bondage took his place as a priest in the midst of nobles, and not infrequently above the heads of kings. The different relations of men became more complicated and more numerous as society gradually became more stable and more civilized. Thence the want of civil laws was felt; and the order of legal functionaries soon rose from the obscurity of the tribunals and their dusty chambers, to appear at the court of the monarch, by the side of the feudal barons in their ermine and their mail. Whilst the kings were ruining themselves by their great enterprises, and the nobles exhausting their resources by private wars, the lower orders were enriching themselves by commerce. The influence of money began to be perceptible in State affairs. The transactions of business opened a new road to power, and the financier rose to a station of political influence in which he was at once flattered and despised. Gradually the spread of mental acquirements, and the increasing taste for literature and art, opened chances of success to talent; science became a means of government, intelligence led to social power, and the man of letters took a part in the affairs of the State. The value attached to the privileges of birth decreased in the exact proportion in which new paths were struck out to advancement. In the eleventh century nobility was beyond all price; in the thirteenth it might be purchased; it was conferred for the first time in 1270; and equality was thus introduced into the Government by the aristocracy itself.

The Tyranny of Good Intentions

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Author :
Publisher : Crown
ISBN 13 : 0307410153
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (74 download)

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Book Synopsis The Tyranny of Good Intentions by : Paul Craig Roberts

Download or read book The Tyranny of Good Intentions written by Paul Craig Roberts and published by Crown. This book was released on 2008-03-25 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thousand years of legal protections against tyranny are being stolen right before our eyes. Under the guise of good intentions, personal liberties as old as the Magna Carta have become casualties in the wars being waged on pollution, drugs, white-collar crime, and all of the other real and imagined social ills. The result: innocent people caught up in a bureaucratic web that destroys lives and livelihoods; businesses shuttered because of victimless infractions; a justice system that values coerced pleas over the search for truth; bullying police agencies empowered to confiscate property without due process. "A devastating indictment of our current system of justice." — Milton Friedman In this provocative book, Paul Craig Roberts and Lawrence M. Stratton show how the law, which once shielded us from the government, has now become a powerful weapon in the hands of overzealous prosecutors and bureaucrats. Lost is the foundation upon which our freedom rest—the intricate framework of Constitutional limits that protect our property, our liberty, and our lives. Roberts and Stratton convincingly argue that this abuse of government power doesn't have ideological boundaries. Indeed, conservatives and liberals alike use prosecutors, regulators, and courts to chase after their own favorite "devils," to seek punishment over justice and expediency over freedom. The authors present harrowing accounts of people both rich and poor, of CEOs and blue-collar workers who have fallen victim to the tyranny of good intentions, who have lost possessions, careers, loved ones, and sometimes even their lives. This book is a sobering wake-up call to reclaim that which is rightly ours—liberty protected by the rule of law.

Justice

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Author :
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 1429952687
Total Pages : 318 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (299 download)

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Book Synopsis Justice by : Michael J. Sandel

Download or read book Justice written by Michael J. Sandel and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2009-09-15 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A renowned Harvard professor's brilliant, sweeping, inspiring account of the role of justice in our society--and of the moral dilemmas we face as citizens What are our obligations to others as people in a free society? Should government tax the rich to help the poor? Is the free market fair? Is it sometimes wrong to tell the truth? Is killing sometimes morally required? Is it possible, or desirable, to legislate morality? Do individual rights and the common good conflict? Michael J. Sandel's "Justice" course is one of the most popular and influential at Harvard. Up to a thousand students pack the campus theater to hear Sandel relate the big questions of political philosophy to the most vexing issues of the day, and this fall, public television will air a series based on the course. Justice offers readers the same exhilarating journey that captivates Harvard students. This book is a searching, lyrical exploration of the meaning of justice, one that invites readers of all political persuasions to consider familiar controversies in fresh and illuminating ways. Affirmative action, same-sex marriage, physician-assisted suicide, abortion, national service, patriotism and dissent, the moral limits of markets—Sandel dramatizes the challenge of thinking through these con?icts, and shows how a surer grasp of philosophy can help us make sense of politics, morality, and our own convictions as well. Justice is lively, thought-provoking, and wise—an essential new addition to the small shelf of books that speak convincingly to the hard questions of our civic life.

The Ideology of Tyranny

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Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 0230341411
Total Pages : 277 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (33 download)

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Book Synopsis The Ideology of Tyranny by : G. Preparata

Download or read book The Ideology of Tyranny written by G. Preparata and published by Springer. This book was released on 2007-09-14 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book ascribes the late state of paralysis affecting dissent in America to the adoption of a peculiar gospel of divisiveness, which was promoted in the Eighties by importing from France the "theories" of philosopher Michel Foucault.

The Tyranny of the Meritocracy

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Author :
Publisher : Beacon Press
ISBN 13 : 0807078123
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis The Tyranny of the Meritocracy by : Lani Guinier

Download or read book The Tyranny of the Meritocracy written by Lani Guinier and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2016-01-12 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fresh and bold argument for revamping our standards of “merit” and a clear blueprint for creating collaborative education models that strengthen our democracy rather than privileging individual elites Standing on the foundations of America’s promise of equal opportunity, our universities purport to serve as engines of social mobility and practitioners of democracy. But as acclaimed scholar and pioneering civil rights advocate Lani Guinier argues, the merit systems that dictate the admissions practices of these institutions are functioning to select and privilege elite individuals rather than create learning communities geared to advance democratic societies. Having studied and taught at schools such as Harvard University, Yale Law School, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Guinier has spent years examining the experiences of ethnic minorities and of women at the nation’s top institutions of higher education, and here she lays bare the practices that impede the stated missions of these schools. Goaded on by a contemporary culture that establishes value through ranking and sorting, universities assess applicants using the vocabulary of private, highly individualized merit. As a result of private merit standards and ever-increasing tuitions, our colleges and universities increasingly are failing in their mission to provide educational opportunity and to prepare students for productive and engaged citizenship. To reclaim higher education as a cornerstone of democracy, Guinier argues that institutions of higher learning must focus on admitting and educating a class of students who will be critical thinkers, active citizens, and publicly spirited leaders. Guinier presents a plan for considering “democratic merit,” a system that measures the success of higher education not by the personal qualities of the students who enter but by the work and service performed by the graduates who leave. Guinier goes on to offer vivid examples of communities that have developed effective learning strategies based not on an individual’s “merit” but on the collaborative strength of a group, learning and working together, supporting members, and evolving into powerful collectives. Examples are taken from across the country and include a wide range of approaches, each innovative and effective. Guinier argues for reformation, not only of the very premises of admissions practices but of the shape of higher education itself.