The Utopian Dilemma In The Western Political Imagination

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The Utopian Dilemma in the Western Political Imagination

Author : John Farrell
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000859576
Total Pages : 237 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (8 download)

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Book Synopsis The Utopian Dilemma in the Western Political Imagination by : John Farrell

Download or read book The Utopian Dilemma in the Western Political Imagination written by John Farrell and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-03-31 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume, John Farrell shows that political utopias—societies with laws and customs designed to short-circuit the foibles of human nature for the benefit of our collective existence—have a perennial opponent, the honor-based culture of aristocracy that dominated most of the world from ancient times into early modernity and whose status-based competitive psychology persists to the present day. While utopias aim at equality, the heroic imperative defends the need for personal and collective dignity. It asks the utopian, Do we really want to live in a world without struggle, without heroes, and without the stories they create? Because the utopian dilemma pits essential values against each other—equity versus freedom, dignity versus justice—few who confront it can simply take sides. Rather, the dilemma itself has been a generative stimulus for classic authors from Plato and Thomas More to George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. Farrell follows their struggles with the utopian dilemma and with each other, providing a deepened understanding of the moral and emotional dynamics of the western political imagination.

The Revival of Political Imagination

Author : Teppo Eskelinen
Publisher : Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN 13 : 1786999560
Total Pages : 214 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (869 download)

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Book Synopsis The Revival of Political Imagination by : Teppo Eskelinen

Download or read book The Revival of Political Imagination written by Teppo Eskelinen and published by Zed Books Ltd.. This book was released on 2020-07-23 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Revival of Political Imagination offers a unique examination of the methodological aspects of utopia. Discussing utopia as a tool for social criticism, method and imaginative spaces - rather than in terms of its content - this volume analyses the function of utopias, to develop utopias as methodology and to show how instrumental utopian modes of thought can be in such diverse fields such as education, labour, and housing. Including discussions of traditional and contemporary utopias, as well as various forms of expression of utopian hope, from literature to social science and cultural practices, The Revival of Political Imagination is both analytical and practical in its elucidation of how political theory can function to foster our imaginative skills.

Utopian Thought in the Western World

Author : Frank Edward MANUEL
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674040562
Total Pages : 907 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (74 download)

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Book Synopsis Utopian Thought in the Western World by : Frank Edward MANUEL

Download or read book Utopian Thought in the Western World written by Frank Edward MANUEL and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 907 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authors have structured five centuries of utopian invention by identifying successive constellations, groups of thinkers joined by common social and moral concerns. Within this framework they analyze individual writings, in the context of the author's life and of the socio-economic, religious, and political exigencies of his time.

Political Uses of Utopia

Author : S. D. Chrostowska
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231544316
Total Pages : 403 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Political Uses of Utopia by : S. D. Chrostowska

Download or read book Political Uses of Utopia written by S. D. Chrostowska and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-21 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Utopia has long been banished from political theory, framed as an impossible—and possibly dangerous—political ideal, a flawed social blueprint, or a thought experiment without any practical import. Even the "realistic utopias" of liberal theory strike many as wishful thinking. Can politics think utopia otherwise? Can utopian thinking contribute to the renewal of politics? In Political Uses of Utopia, an international cast of leading and emerging theorists agree that the uses of utopia for politics are multiple and nuanced and lie somewhere between—or, better yet, beyond—the mainstream caution against it and the conviction that another, better world ought to be possible. Representing a range of perspectives on the grand tradition of Western utopianism, which extends back half a millennium and perhaps as far as Plato, these essays are united in their interest in the relevance of utopianism to specific historical and contemporary political contexts. Featuring contributions from Miguel Abensour, Étienne Balibar, Raymond Geuss, and Jacques Rancière, among others, Political Uses of Utopia reopens the question of whether and how utopianism can inform political thinking and action today.

Human Nature and Politics in Utopian and Anti-Utopian Fiction

Author : Nivedita Bagchi
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 149855167X
Total Pages : 101 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (985 download)

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Book Synopsis Human Nature and Politics in Utopian and Anti-Utopian Fiction by : Nivedita Bagchi

Download or read book Human Nature and Politics in Utopian and Anti-Utopian Fiction written by Nivedita Bagchi and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-10-15 with total page 101 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While the interest in anti-utopias has exploded over the years, issues of human nature rarely make it into the discussion of these works of literature. Yet conceptions of human nature play a key role in both the utopian belief that the perfect political system can be achieved and in the anti-utopian conviction that an ideal state is neither possible nor desirable, and would simply lead to a repressive state. This book examines two well-known utopias and two anti-utopias to draw out their conceptions of human nature and show that these conceptions are directly related to their views on politics. It shows that utopians emphasize that human nature is knowable, predictable, and therefore, open to manipulation and/or suppression. Anti-utopians, on the other hand, make the claim that human nature is not entirely knowable or predictable. While they worry about the power of the state to manipulate human nature, they also make the case that the natural recalcitrance and unpredictability of human beings would lead inevitably to a search for freedom and individuality and, therefore, to a clash between the state and the individual in the supposedly ideal state. Ultimately, therefore, these anti-utopians suggest a new conception of human beings as people who value the power to choose their own ends and are unable to entirely suppress their desire for freedom. These two conceptions of human nature lead to two dramatically different conceptions of politics. Utopians see the possibility of manipulating human nature to create an ideal political system which synthesizes all political values and issues while anti-utopians reject both the possibility and desirability of an ideal political system and make the case for providing freedom of choice for all people.

Globalization and Utopia

Author : Patrick Hayden
Publisher : Palgrave MacMillan
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Globalization and Utopia by : Patrick Hayden

Download or read book Globalization and Utopia written by Patrick Hayden and published by Palgrave MacMillan. This book was released on 2009-03-12 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is it possible to create a different and better world? This innovative volume explores debates about the demise of utopia at the end of the twentieth century, and examines the potential renewal of political imagination and the utopian impulse today. The discussion is set in an enlarged and enriched frame that situates utopianism in relation to the complexities and challenges of globalization. Critically investigating many of the unacknowledged assumptions about the inevitability of our current social and political experiences, and this collection considers questions of hope and transformation associated with the utopian desire for social change. It explores the range of political responses that utopian actors have available in light of globalization - ranging from 'everyday life' to global politics, from anti-consumerism to cyber-utopianism. This book makes a timely contribution to considering the challenge of imagining a different and better way of living in a global age.

The Philosophy of Utopia

Author : Barbara Goodwin
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136337636
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (363 download)

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Book Synopsis The Philosophy of Utopia by : Barbara Goodwin

Download or read book The Philosophy of Utopia written by Barbara Goodwin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection addresses the important function of utopianism in social and political philosophy and includes debate on what its future role will be in a period dominated by dystopian nightmare scenarios.

American Foreign Policy and the Utopian Imagination

Author : Susan M. Matarese
Publisher : Univ of Massachusetts Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis American Foreign Policy and the Utopian Imagination by : Susan M. Matarese

Download or read book American Foreign Policy and the Utopian Imagination written by Susan M. Matarese and published by Univ of Massachusetts Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "However U.S. policymakers resolve such issues, their thinking will be influenced by assumptions deeply embedded in American culture. Some of those beliefs derive from the nation's distinctive history, geography, and resources. But others are rooted in what Susan M. Matarese call the "national image" - a set of emotionally charged, relatively coherent ideas about the special qualities of the United States and its place in the world."--BOOK JACKET.

Utopia

Author : George Kateb
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351300393
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (513 download)

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Book Synopsis Utopia by : George Kateb

Download or read book Utopia written by George Kateb and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-29 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amid the twentieth century's seemingly overwhelming problems, some thinkers dared to envisage a world order governed by utopian proposals that would eliminate--or at least alleviate--the evils of society and secure positive advantages for all human beings. Others found this utopian optimism a hopeless fantasy and predicted a utopian order only repressiveness, boredom, and the impoverishment of human experience. The unique gathering of articles in Utopia vividly demonstrates the tension existing between utopian ideas and their proponents and the severe criticism of their adversaries. Among utopia's enthusiastic supporters, B. F. Skinner outlines the educational practices needed to sustain his concept of utopia, while Margaret Mead sets forth a bold defense of utopian vision in her article "Towards More Vivid Utopias." In active opposition to modern utopian idealism, Ralf Dahrendorf, the prominent German sociologist and politician, compares utopia with a cemetery and criticizes its fixed and uneventful life, and J. L. Talmon predicts that, since utopianism postulates absolute social cohesion, there is no escape from dictatorship in the utopian design. Still another alternative is offered by Zbigniew Brzezinski, who bases his futurist ideology on the trends of technology in the advanced countries of the world, especially the United States. He sees in the conscious application of technical-scientific rationality by an intellectual elite the method by which the promises of modern knowledge can be made good. Underscoring the fact that the utopian tradition can make us look at the real world with new eyes, George Kateb, the editor of Utopia, clarifies the terms of this long-standing debate and offers a thorough analysis of the "strong utopian impetus to save the world from as much of its confusion and disorder as possible." The work is an argument neither for utopian or anti-utopian visions. Rather it shows the possibilities of political norms in advancing the human condition in open societies.

The Post-Utopian Imagination

Author : M. Keith Booker
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 0313076359
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis The Post-Utopian Imagination by : M. Keith Booker

Download or read book The Post-Utopian Imagination written by M. Keith Booker and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2002-01-30 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In America, the long 1950s were marked by an intense skepticism toward utopian alternatives to the existing capitalist order. This skepticism was closely related to the climate of the Cold War, in which the demonization of socialism contributed to a dismissal of all alternatives to capitalism. This book studies how American novels and films of the long 1950s reflect the loss of the utopian imagination and mirror the growing concern that capitalism brought routinization, alienation, and other dehumanizing consequences. The volume relates the decline of the utopian vision to the rise of late capitalism, with its expanding globalization and consumerism, and to the beginnings of postmodernism. In addition to well-known literary novels, such as Nabokov's Lolita, Booker explores a large body of leftist fiction, popular novels, and the films of Alfred Hitchcock and Walt Disney. The book argues that while the canonical novels of the period employ a utopian aesthetic, that aesthetic tends to be very weak and is not reinforced by content. The leftist novels, on the other hand, employ a realist aesthetic but are utopian in their exploration of alternatives to capitalism. The study concludes that the utopian energies in cultural productions of the long 1950s are very weak, and that these works tend to dismiss utopian thinking as na^Dive or even sinister. The weak utopianism in these works tends to be reflected in characteristics associated with postmodernism.

The Confucian Political Imagination

Author : Eske J. Møllgaard
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319748998
Total Pages : 191 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (197 download)

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Book Synopsis The Confucian Political Imagination by : Eske J. Møllgaard

Download or read book The Confucian Political Imagination written by Eske J. Møllgaard and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-05-07 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book critically examines the Confucian political imagination and its influence on the contemporary Chinese dream of a powerful China. It views Confucianism as the ideological supplement to a powerful state that is challenging Western hegemony, and not as a political philosophy that need not concern us. Eske Møllgaard shows that Confucians, despite their traditionalist ways, have the will to transform the existing socio-ethical order. The volume discusses the central features of the Confucian political imaginary, the nature of Confucian discourse, Confucian revivals, Confucian humanism and civility, and the political ideal of the Great Unity. It concludes by considering if Confucianism can be universalized as an ideology in competition with liberal democracy.

The Politics of Utopia

Author : Barbara Goodwin
Publisher : Peter Lang
ISBN 13 : 9783039110803
Total Pages : 348 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (18 download)

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Book Synopsis The Politics of Utopia by : Barbara Goodwin

Download or read book The Politics of Utopia written by Barbara Goodwin and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2009 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides both an introduction to utopianism and a general perspective on radical political thought. Vigorously disputing the widespread conviction that utopianism is a fantasy with no relevance to modern political life and thought, the authors argue that it is a concept whose special virtue lies in its capacity to transcend the limitations of present circumstances, to inspire alternative thinking and to open up new directions for political action. This book develops an approach which relates social causes to political theory and practice. The first part discusses utopianism as a form of political theory with unique characteristics and the ability to transcend the present. The second part considers utopianism as an expression of fundamental social impulses and as an ingredient of modern political movements. The third part offers a defence of utopianism as both theory and practice, and argues for its use to counteract the pragmatism and narrow empiricism which often passes for political «realism» in modern societies. This reissue of a popular and well-received landmark text contains a new preface.

American Foreign Policy and the Utopian Imagination

Author : Susan M. Matarese
Publisher : Univ of Massachusetts Press
ISBN 13 : 9781558497702
Total Pages : 190 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (977 download)

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Book Synopsis American Foreign Policy and the Utopian Imagination by : Susan M. Matarese

Download or read book American Foreign Policy and the Utopian Imagination written by Susan M. Matarese and published by Univ of Massachusetts Press. This book was released on 2010-03-02 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An innovative look at the cultural roots of American foreign policy.

Utopian Horizons

Author : Zsolt Cziganyik
Publisher : Central European University Press
ISBN 13 : 9633861810
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (338 download)

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Book Synopsis Utopian Horizons by : Zsolt Cziganyik

Download or read book Utopian Horizons written by Zsolt Cziganyik and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-31 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 500th anniversary of Thomas More?s Utopia has directed attention toward the importance of utopianism. This book investigates the possibilities of cooperation between the humanities and the social sciences in the analysis of 20th century and contemporary utopian phenomena. The papers deal with major problems of interpreting utopias, the relationship of utopia and ideology, and the highly problematic issue as to whether utopia necessarily leads to dystopia. Besides reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary utopian investigations, the eleven essays effectively represent the constructive attitudes of utopian thought, a feature that not only defines late 20th- and 21st-century utopianism, but is one of the primary reasons behind the rising importance of the topic. The volume?s originality and value lies not only in the innovative theoretical approaches proposed, but also in the practical application of the concept of utopia to a variety of phenomena which have been neglected in the utopian studies paradigm, especially to the rarely discussed Central European texts and ideologies.

Paranoia and Modernity

Author : John C. Farrell
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 1501732420
Total Pages : 356 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis Paranoia and Modernity by : John C. Farrell

Download or read book Paranoia and Modernity written by John C. Farrell and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-09-05 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Don Quixote is the first great modern paranoid adventurer.... Grandiosity and persecution define the characters of Swift's Gulliver, Stendhal's Julien Sorel, Melville's Ahab, Dostoyevsky's Underground Man, Ibsen's Masterbuilder Solness, Strindberg's Captain (in The Father), Kafka's K., and Joyce's autobiographical hero Stephen Dedalus.... The all-encompassing conspiracy, very much in its original Rousseauvian cast, has become almost the normal way of representing society and its institutions since World War Two, giving impetus to heroic plots and counter-plots in a hundred films and in the novels of Burroughs, Heller, Ellison, Pynchon, Kesey, Mailer, DeLillo, and others."—from Paranoia and Modernity Paranoia, suspicion, and control have preoccupied key Western intellectuals since the sixteenth century. Paranoia is a dominant concern in modern literature, and its peculiar constellation of symptoms—grandiosity, suspicion, unfounded hostility, delusions of persecution and conspiracy—are nearly obligatory psychological components of the modern hero. How did paranoia come to the center of modern moral and intellectual consciousness? In Paranoia and Modernity, John Farrell brings literary criticism, psychology, and intellectual history to the attempt at an answer. He demonstrates the connection between paranoia and the long history of struggles over the question of agency—the extent to which we are free to act and responsible for our actions. He addresses a wide range of major authors from the late Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, among them Luther, Bacon, Cervantes, Descartes, Hobbes, Pascal, La Rochefoucauld, Swift, and Rousseau. Farrell shows how differently paranoid psychology looks at different historical junctures with different models of agency, and in the epilogue, "Paranoia and Postmodernism," he draws the implications for recent critical debates in the humanities.

Utopia/Dystopia

Author : Michael D. Gordin
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400834953
Total Pages : 302 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (8 download)

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Book Synopsis Utopia/Dystopia by : Michael D. Gordin

Download or read book Utopia/Dystopia written by Michael D. Gordin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-08-23 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The concepts of utopia and dystopia have received much historical attention. Utopias have traditionally signified the ideal future: large-scale social, political, ethical, and religious spaces that have yet to be realized. Utopia/Dystopia offers a fresh approach to these ideas. Rather than locate utopias in grandiose programs of future totality, the book treats these concepts as historically grounded categories and examines how individuals and groups throughout time have interpreted utopian visions in their daily present, with an eye toward the future. From colonial and postcolonial Africa to pre-Marxist and Stalinist Eastern Europe, from the social life of fossil fuels to dreams of nuclear power, and from everyday politics in contemporary India to imagined architectures of postwar Britain, this interdisciplinary collection provides new understandings of the utopian/dystopian experience. The essays look at such issues as imaginary utopian perspectives leading to the 1856-57 Xhosa Cattle Killing in South Africa, the functioning racist utopia behind the Rhodesian independence movement, the utopia of the peaceful atom and its global dissemination in the mid-1950s, the possibilities for an everyday utopia in modern cities, and how the Stalinist purges of the 1930s served as an extension of the utopian/dystopian relationship. The contributors are Dipesh Chakrabarty, Igal Halfin, Fredric Jameson, John Krige, Timothy Mitchell, Aditya Nigam, David Pinder, Marci Shore, Jennifer Wenzel, and Luise White.

Picture Imperfect

Author : Russell Jacoby
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780231128940
Total Pages : 250 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (289 download)

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Book Synopsis Picture Imperfect by : Russell Jacoby

Download or read book Picture Imperfect written by Russell Jacoby and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many observers judge utopians and their sympathizers as foolhardy dreamers at best and murderous totalitarians at worst. However, as noted social critic and historian Russell Jacoby argues, not only has utopianism been unfairly characterized, a return to an iconoclastic utopian spirit is vital for today's society. Jacoby reexamines the anti-utopian mindset and identifies how utopian thought came to be regarded with such suspicion. He challenges standard readings of such anti-utopian classics as 1984 and Brave New World and offers stinging critiques of the influential liberal and anti-utopian theorists Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, and Karl Popper. As Jacoby demonstrates, iconoclastic utopianism, shaped by the works of Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Gustav Landauer, and other predominantly Jewish thinkers, revives society's dormant political imagination and suggests new and more imaginative ideas of the future.