scholarly journals Modernity, the Commons and Capitalism

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 367-386
Author(s):  
George Skouras

AbstractThe modern way of life and reflected in modern political philosophy is directed by capitalist activity of both commodities and persons. Entities that do not have commodity value are worthless to the capitalist enterprise, regardless of any intrinsic value in themselves. Modernity is capitalist modernity. Modernity has given preference for objects/commodities over persons. This paper will argue for opening-up the landscape for alternative experiences to capitalism, as an attempt to move away from the capitalist enterprise. That is, be able to provide open space for people to use other than the buying and selling of commodities---where the commodification process breaks down and opens-up spaces for alternative experiences besides the capitalist experience. In other words, this work will attempt to serve as critique of Enlightenment philosophical discourse---that is, serve as a critique of the Age of Enlightenment serving as the foundational head of modernism---a plea for the rebellion against the quantification and mathematization of reality under modernist and industrial societies. It will use the modern landscape as the first effort to break free from the capitalist enterprise.

Author(s):  
Martin Odei Ajei

This chapter discusses the contributions of Kwame Nkrumah, Kwasi Wiredu, William. E. Abraham, and Kwame Gyekye to the corpus of African philosophy. It elaborates their normative perspectives on three themes: the relevance of tradition to modernity, the appropriate form of democracy as means of legitimating political power in Africa, and the relative status of person and community; it also reflects on the significance of these themes in postcolonial African social and political philosophical discourse. The chapter then points out points of convergence and divergence among these individuals and how they relate with Western philosophical perspectives and argues that their work configures a coherent discourse that justifies joining them in a tradition of Ghanaian political philosophy.


2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cara Nine

Abstract:Up until now, political philosophy has explained the acquisition of natural resources, in one way or another, through the terms of human settlement. An agent acquires natural resources by moving into the geographic area that contains these resources. Even how we make claims to the ocean floor depends on settlement — claimants must be adjacent to settled land. This essay extends original acquisition theories so that they can respond to cases that do not presuppose any conditions of human settlement. I suggest that resource rights in the deep sea may be created, alternatively, through acts of compromise. Compromise can alleviate conflict, allowing for claimants to move beyond stalemate to acquire goods. It also allows for a large degree of flexibility in the specification of rights, and thereby can explain nontraditional rights over areas of migration. The tricky part of a theory that grants rights through agreement is explaining why external parties, those not part of the agreement, have a duty to respect those rights. A compromise under certain conditions, I argue, places all persons under a duty to respect the rights created by the compromise. Thus, when two parties compromise, they may acquire goods from the commons — creating a duty for all others to respect the parties’ rights over these goods. Importantly, rights created through compromise are constrained by a set of concerns for those excluded.


Author(s):  
Nancy J. Hirschmann

The topic of feminism within the history of political philosophy and political theory might seem to be quite ambiguous. Feminists interested in the history of political philosophy did not urge the abandonment of the canon at all, but were instead protesting the way in which political philosophy was studied. They thus advocated “opening up” the canon, rather than its abolishment. There have been at least five ways in which this “opening” of the canon has been developed by feminists in the history of political philosophy. All of them do not only demonstrate that the history of political philosophy is important to feminism; they also demonstrate that feminism is important to the history of political philosophy. A two-tiered structure of freedom, with some conceptualizations of freedom designated for men and the wealthy, and other conceptualizations designated for laborers and women, shows that class and gender were important dimensions to be explored when examining the history of political philosophy. One way in which feminism has opened up the canon is its relevance to contemporary politics.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-64
Author(s):  
Olha Honcharenko ◽  

The review includes a book by Pierre Ado, a French philosopher, philologist and researcher for ancient and medieval philosophy. The main idea of the book is to find an answer on the question: does philosophy form or inform? In this way, the author tries to actualize the fact that philosophical discourse and philosophical life are inseparable. He believes that the recognition of philosophical life as one of the poles of philosophy will help to find a place in our modern world for philosophers who will not only renew philosophical discourse, but also direct it into their lives. This book is addressed to everyone. Ado is convinced that anyone who dares to live in a philosophical way can become a philosopher.


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 10-21
Author(s):  
Ekaterina I. Akimova ◽  
◽  
Anatoly G. Madzhuga ◽  
Raisa V. Shurupova ◽  
Elena L. Bueverova ◽  
...  

Confronting current challenges, especially the COVID-19 pandemic, and striving to create a hopeful future – an era of life and active longevity – determine an urgent global need to implement the principles of humanity and create a new understanding of health and a healthy lifestyle, correlated with a fundamental respect for the dignity of life. Based on the idea of the relationship between health and a healthy lifestyle through the inherent value of the individual, embodying the intrinsic value of life, basic contradictions were identified: the contradiction between the understanding of health as a state of physical, mental, and social well-being and a healthy lifestyle, which focuses on the physical aspect of health, omitting the spiritual component; the contradiction between the numerous proposed strategies for a healthy lifestyle and the lack of a fundamental goal that expresses its value-semantic result. In the aspect of philosophical-methodological ideas about health and a healthy lifestyle, their essential binding element was defined – the good that embodies the result of the ultimate aspiration of a person. The resolution of the basic contradictions revealed in the analysis of philosophical-methodological ideas about health and a healthy lifestyle made it possible to present new, clearer definitions of health and a healthy lifestyle: health is a good that allows a person to embody the value of life in a specific reality; a healthy lifestyle is an individual way of life, which is based on a person’s respect for the dignity of life and creates a benefit to him/herself and others, gaining the joy of existence. A new concept of a healthy lifestyle was developed, which defined the joy of existence as its fundamental goal, implemented by a person through the creation of good for oneself and others in a system of socio-cultural and natural interaction based on respect for the dignity of life.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Akhmad Rizqon Khamami

This paper discusses the contributions of Nurcu movement in strengthening Islam in contemporary Turkey. In consonance with the rising of Turkey as a strong country in political and economical sphere on global level, this country is said to be a symbol of Islamic renaisance of the Muslim world. The four consecutive victories of Erdoğan’s party in Turkey general election is seen as a solely factor for the Islamic renaisance of Turkey. But this writer argues that there is yet another Islamic movement which worked on Islamic <em>da’wah</em> far before AKP grabbed the power. Nurcu is that of this very Islamic movement. It has a large number of members ranged from businessmen, intellectuals, students, and housewives. The businessmen of Nurcu are known as “Anatolian Tigers” who contribute in developing economy of Turkey since Turgut Özal opening up liberal economy and integrating its economy into greater lap of the world economy in 1980s. This development of the Turkey economy walks hand in hand with spirit of Islamic way of life within Turkish people. This writer assumes that the movement has paved the way for AKP’s victories; and is currently for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to receive the tittle of newly-found Islamic hero of the contemporary Islam in the Indonesian political Islamists’ view.


2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 39-57
Author(s):  
Karen Green ◽  

Can Catharine Macaulay’s enlightenment democratic republicanism be justified from the point of view of contemporary naturalism? Naturalist accounts of political authority tend to be realist and pessimistic, foreclosing the possibility of enlightenment. Macaulay’s utopian political philosophy relies on belief in a good God, whose existence underpins the possibility of moral and political progress. This paper attempts a restoration of her optimistic utopianism in a reconciliation, grounded in a revision of natural law, of naturalist and utopian attitudes to political theory. It is proposed that the coevolution of language, moral law, and conscience (the disposition to judge one’s own actions in the light of moral principles) can be explained as solutions to the kinds of tragedy of the commons situations facing our ancestors. Moral dispositions evolved, but, in the light of its function, law is subject to rational critique. Liberal democracy plausibly offers the best prospect for developing rationally justifiable law.


Utopophobia ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 304-315
Author(s):  
David Estlund

This chapter argues against “practicalism.” It shows that it is very plausible that some things must be of intrinsic value, that is, apart from what they can be used to produce. A narrower practicalism might hold that intellectual work in particular is never of intrinsic value, and so is worthless unless it is of practical value. The chapter contends that this flies in the face of some robust views about the value of some intellectual work in science and mathematics. This leaves two problems of special interest here: first, so far, even if that point makes general intellectual practicalism appear implausible, it has no tendency to show that nonpractical philosophy, or in particular political philosophy, might be of intrinsic value. They might lack whatever it is about nonpractical yet important math and science that makes them important. This leads to the second problem, which is that even if those examples tend to refute practicalism, they do not yet provide any account of what is valuable about them.


2006 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-205
Author(s):  
Robert C. Bartlett

The present essay sketches the outline and the intention of Hesiod's Works and Days. Hesiod's principal task appears to be the identification (and praise) of the best way of life for his wayward brother Perses, but in carrying out this task, Hesiod speaks of justice and its human and divine supports in such a way as to go well beyond what would be of benefit to his brother. For in the course of his analysis of justice, or as a result of it, Hesiod praises also the life of autonomous understanding, the life that appears to be the poet's own. In crucial ways, then, Hesiod explores the chief themes of what was to become political philosophy, and for this reason, among others, he deserves the attention of all those who are also concerned with it.


2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Denio M. Benfatti ◽  
Eugenio F. Queiroga ◽  
Jonathas M. P. Silva

O trabalho reflete sobre as novas formas de expansão e crescimento metropolitano, associando-as a transformações igualmente importantes na esfera da vida pública. A expressão cotidiana desse processo de expansão e crescimento se deixa transparecer a partir de dois movimentos complementares. De um lado, o aumento em número e extensão dos deslocamentos cotidianos de uma comunidade a outra em um mesmo ambiente metropolitano. De outro, reflete as transformações resultantes do modo de vida metropolitano: horários variáveis e flexíveis, individualização das práticas de produção e consumo. Temos como objeto desta reflexão a Metrópole de Campinas como parte do território metropolitanizado que ocorre no entorno da capital paulista. Nossa hipótese é que essas transformações não se restringem anovas denominações de um processo ampliado de urbanização, mas que essas transformações têm engendrado novos padrões e espaços de sociabilidade e, mais do que isso, um modo de vida e produção específicos. Nesta reflexão, interessa-nos mostrar como essa nova dinâmica afeta a esfera da vida pública e a definição e constituição dos sistemas de espaços livres. Palavras-chave: megalópole; urbanização fragmentada; esfera da vida pública; espaço público; sistema de espaços livres. Abstract: The paper reflects on new forms of metropolitan growth and expansion, associating them with equally significant changes in the sphere of public life. The daily expression of this process of expansion and growth can be perceived through two complementary movements. On the one hand, the growth in number and extent of daily displacements between communities within the same metropolitan area. On the other, reflecting changes in the metropolitan way of life, flexible schedules and individualization of production and consumption practices. Our focus is the metropolis of Campinas as part of the metropolization process that occurs in the vicinity of the capital – São Paulo. Our hypothesis is that these transformations are not restricted to new names for an extended process of urbanization, but that they have generated new patterns and spaces of sociability, and more than that, they have generated a specific ways of life and production. In this reflection, we are interested in showing how this new dynamic affects the sphere of public life and in discussing the definition and constitution of open space systems. Keywords: megalopolis; fragmented urbanization; public life sphere; public space; open space system.


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