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An accessible account of philosophical concepts, theories and key thinkers with an emphasis on recent developments in the field. Containing over 300 entries, the terms are ordered alphabetically and cross referenced for ease of use. Suggestions for further reading follow the explanations, encouraging further reflection and independent learning.
'Ersatz Krieg'. The true story of Alban Snape, aged just 18 he was taken prisoner whilst on a scouting mission soon after the Normandy Landings in June 1944. This 'Churchill gangster' was transported to Stalag VIIIC in Poland and sent to work for the Germans in a sugar factory. The story tells of Alban's attempted escape, the sabotage of the sugar factory and the long march west that followed. For five months they were marched and starved with the harsh central European winter as the backdrop to this epic tale. This book gives a dramatic insight to the tyranny and horror that was Nazi Germany, where a single Red Cross parcel was worth killing for and where men fought a continual struggle to stave off death from a plethora of causes.
In this book Paddy McQueen examines the role that 'recognition' plays in our struggles to construct an identity and to make sense of ourselves as gendered beings. It analyses how such struggles for gender recognition are shaped by social discourses and power relations, and considers how feminism can best respond to these issues.
The latest volume of Culture and Civilization gathers contemporary exponents of critical theory, specifically those based in the Frankfurt School of social thinking. Collectively, this volume demonstrates the continuing intellectual viability of critical theory, which challenges the limits of positivism and materialism. We may question how the theoretical framework of Marxism fails to coordinate with the conditions that defined labor forces, as did Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, or deliberate on the conditions that justify the claims we make through public discourse, as did Jurgen Habermas. Or, like Axel Honneth, we may reflect on recognition theory as a means of addressing social proble...
Drawing a link between music and what Maurice Merleau-Ponty calls the habit body – a quasi-transcendental structure at the heart of our perceptual, social, and agential being – this book helps articulate why music has the power to express as well as shape our existence at a fundamental level. Using phenomenology, research in the cognitive sciences, and first-person descriptions of musical experiences, this book addresses topics such as the relationship of music to identity, the capacity of music to be personally and socially transformative, the role of music in our perception of others, the connection between music and trauma, and the possibility of engendering we-experiences through shared musical time.
A tension between the desire to be respected as an equal and the desire to distinguish oneself as a unique person lies at the heart of the modern social order. Everyone cares about recognition: no one wants to be treated with disrespect, insulted, humiliated, or simply ignored. This basic motivation drives the ‘politics of recognition’ which we see in those struggles for inclusion and equality in relation to gender, ethnicity, race and sexuality and which seek to affirm the public value of these particular identities. In this compelling new book Cillian McBride argues that the notion of recognition is not merely confined to these struggles, but has a long history, from ancient ethical id...
"It was as if the wool had become all of the strands of his life, and those lifelines, not amounting to much but full of potential, were forming into something much more worthwhile, and much more beautiful, after they had been given a new form with the knitting needles." Inspired by the poems written by his coal miner father, and taking its name and theme from one of them, “The Knitter” is a celebration of one man’s wisdom, talent and influence. The book should be considered a “fictionalised” memoir – some parts are literally true, some are a close cousin of real events and some have been imagined from stories told, or from the poems written by the author's father. In trying to r...
Recognition is one of the most debated concepts in contemporary social and political thought. Its proponents, such as Axel Honneth, hold that to be recognized by others is a basic human need that is central to forming an identity, and the denial of recognition deprives individuals and communities of something essential for their flourishing. Yet critics including Judith Butler have questioned whether recognition is implicated in structures of domination, arguing that the desire to be recognized can motivative individuals to accept their assigned place in the social order by conforming to oppressive norms or obeying repressive institutions. Is there a way to break this impasse? Recognition an...
Philosopher Paddy McQueen provides a detailed examination of the nature of regret and its role in decision-making. Additionally, he explores how experiences of regret are shaped by social discourses, especially those about gender and parenthood.
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