Political Philosophy and Ethics discussion
Introductions
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New Member Introductions
Mod
A peace society advocating social science education as an agency for equitable social development serving as an informative source of literature on the human condition based on app..."
Welcome to the group, Hubert. You might also consider posting brief synopses of and links to your books in the Publications of Group Members topic of this group.
Hi! I am reading Common Sense and thought it would be nice to have people to discuss it with, so I searched on GR and found you! I am a married mom of 2 preschool aged children and live in Salt Lake City. My degree is in Psychology and Philosophy, but my interests are varied and I am excited to delve into more political philosophy soon!
Mod
Welcome to the group, Ashley. I have now opened a new topic on Thomas Paine here. Please feel free to contribute.
Alan E. Johnson
Moderator
Hi guys. I'm from Brasília, Brazil. Graduated in Law with a Post-Graduation in Public Law. I'm a Judge and Law Professor. Actually I'm reading Larry Siedentop "Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism". Philosophy in general and politic philosophy in particular are fields of special interest.
Mod
Welcome to the group, Marcus. You have an interesting background. I believe you are the second professor from Brazil in our group.
Alan E. Johnson
Moderator
Welcome to the group Marcus. I´m also from Brasilia and a thinker on capitalism and socialism. Success. Ron Carneiro
Hi all, i'm an Organisational Psychologist and Human Resources Director working in public health. My background is more Psychology, Psychiatry, Social Science, Mental Health, Economics and Employment Law with my philosophical studies limited, thus far, to the great thinkers underpinning and influencing my specialist areas which have been restricted somewhat. However, there has been much interplay over the years political arena and without conscious decision has led me to explore political philosophy in more detail; I'm hooked! I'm very much grateful to be part of this group and look forward to sharing, learning and growing with you all.
Mod
Welcome to this group, Carolina.
Mod
Welcome to the group, Mark. I am not myself well read in linguistic philosophy, but there are probably other members of this group who can give you some bibliographic information.
This group is focused on ethical and political philosophy as distinguished from metaphysics, analytic philosophy, and so forth (see the rules at the top of the group's home page). However, I don't have a problem with other group members giving you bibliographic references if they can be helpful in that regard. This is not, however, the place to get involved in discussions of analytic or linguistic philosophy. That topic is more appropriately addressed in the Philosophy Goodreads group.
Alan
(Moderator)
Hello, My name is John Baldwin. I hold an B.A. Political Science and an MPA (Public Administration). I was introduced to Harry Jaffa, Leo Strauss and Harvey Mansfield during my undergrad work at California State University, San Bernardino. I thoroughly enjoyed the classical political philosophies of Aristotle, Plato Machiavelli, Hobbes, Tocqueville and Locke (and countless others) through their works. It is drives my interest in political philosophy to this day. I hope to find many discussions that fuel my passion for all things related to the love of knowledge or philosophia
Mod
Welcome, John, to our group. Based on your background and interests, you might be especially interested in the Leo Strauss and the "Straussians" topic in this Goodreads group.
Alan
Moderator
Hello everyone, my name is Catherine and I'm currently a Criminology student at University. I've had an interest in Philosophy ever since I was younger, and have read such works as David Hume, Bertrand Russell, Friedrich Nietzsche etc. etc. I've recently also purchased Ian Brady's text on analysing serial killers which I am so far enjoying. I also have a deep understanding in politics and religion.I'm looking forward to speaking with others with similar interests to me.
Mod
Welcome to this group, Catherine. One of the things that make our discussions interesting is that we have, in addition to group members from the US, people in the UK (like you), Ireland, continental Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. I hope I have not left anyone out. We may have one or more people from Iceland--I don't remember at this time.
Welcome aboard Catherine - please see - http://rcarneiro4.blogspot.com.br - I'm also, looking forward to speaking with others with similar interests to me. Success. Ron Carneiro
Hi Everyone,Just wanted to say HI and quickly introduce myself before doing anything else.
My name is Parag Khanna, I have some experience as a geopolitical analyst and international relations advisor. I’ve also written a couple of books on these topics as it relates to both the political and business scenes.
I look forward to engaging with the group - both receiving and giving feedback, specially with the events related to the current state of world affairs, as well as the U.S. administration.
Thanks and hope you all have a great weekend.
Cheers,
Parag
Mod
Just wanted to say HI and quickly introduce myself before doing anything else.
My name is Parag Khanna, I have some experience as a geopolitical analyst and international relations ..."
Welcome to this group, Parag. Your books look quite interesting and a needed corrective to our US-centric way of looking at the world.
Alan (Moderator)
Parag wrote: "Hi Everyone, . . . I have some experience as a geopolitical analyst and international relations advisor. ..."Terrific article in Politico, Parag. Take that, PumpkinFuhrer!
Interesting to see Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage put to contemporary use. Ronaldo will enjoy this.
Cheers,
Randal
Mod
Terrific article in Politico, Parag. Take that, PumpkinFuhrer!
Interes..."
Congratulations, Parag, on your article.
Randal and Alan - a long long time I´d never read some economic´s basic concept as:"But there is a law of history far more powerful than (American) geopolitical primacy: supply and demand".
"Globalization can still be win-win. Most of the rest of the world sees it that way, and so too should America".
Really is a terrific book of Parag - you´re, as always, is right Randal. Cheeerrss. Ron
My name is Natalie and I am here to read and learn. I've been a narrow specialist throughout my career and have read but little and know even less of philosophy. I would like to know more about formal political philosophy and ethics. My field has been poetry and literature but aside from some snatches of Cicero and Ovid, I've probably not read much that was written before Chaucer.
Mod
Welcome to this group, Natalie. Your book on Jane Austen looks very interesting, and I hope to find time to read it at some point. Currently, I'm preoccupied with many issues in the nonfiction area, but I'll keep your book in mind if I need a break from all that heavy stuff.
I am sorry that the Jane Austen book is publicized. Good Reads and/or Penguin did it without my permission. Please do not read it. I wrote it on contract and hence did not have final editorial authority. They dumbed it down and it's really quite insipid. I am not proud of it. I also have to say that Good Reads will not allow my account to divorce itself from the book.This is the point where true stoicism would help, I think.
Mod
I'm sorry to hear about this. One of major reasons that I self-published my recent book on Roger Williams through Amazon on their CreateSpace (paperback) and Kindle (ebook) platforms is that I retain total editorial and copyright control. They will, if the author wishes, provide some services (interior design, for example) at a relatively modest sum, but they don't have any control over the final product whatsoever. The paperback production is print-on-demand. Neither the author nor the publisher has to carry any inventory. A royalty structure is determined by contract at the beginning. I get set amounts for each paperback sold and for each Kindle sold or rented (through Kindle Unlimited). They take care of all the shipping, handling, sales/use taxes, etc. And another great advantage, in my view, is that the book (either paperback or Kindle) never goes out of print. Too many books generated by regular publishers go out of print within a few years after publication. If you write another book, I would recommend exploring this option.
Thank you, Alan. I will keep that in mind although I doubt that I will ever write another book. The thing I did like about the book was that it forced me to become a specialist and I grew to admire the subject more and more but at the same time was unhappy that I was a part of cheapening her.I got paid, signed a contract, and there was no going back. I did not earn anything of note because I had to pay to get rights to photographs and quotations.
If I had known, however.....I would have self-published (or not published). Thank you, Alan.
Hello everyone!I'm Robert Jameson and I'm the author of numerous books, many of which are concerned with philosophy and, in particular, ethics.
A common theme of many of my books is the issue of how we can all improve our intelligent thinking capabilities through working to free our minds from prejudice.
And in order to encourage more free-thinking, I offer simple, non-academic thought-exercises that challenge the reader to question the politically-correct and 'acceptable' opinions of the society they live in.
To learn more about my work, please visit my website:
http://imos.org.uk/
And if you are interested in my work and in supporting my aims, please get in touch. I'm always grateful for any help I can get - and I may even have a book I can send you for free!
Mod
I'm Robert Jameson and I'm the author of numerous books, many of which are concerned with philosophy and, in particular, ethics.
A common theme of many of my books is the issue of..."
Welcome to this group, Robert. Your books look interesting and are affordably priced. I'll read some of them when I return to the revision of my 2000 book on ethics. Right now, I'm focused on researching and writing a book about the US electoral college.
You might be interested in contributing to one or more of the topics (threads) in our Ethics folder.
Alan (Moderator)
Greetings Alan; I'm semi-retired and now have 2 fine translations: one being from Schleiermacher's PLATO - 9 dialogues; the other is Kafka - 9 stories and 3 novel excepts. Info is on my webpage:http://home.earthlink.net/~ushaphil/i...
I hope that a few people may find my work to be of interest and believe that the connection between Plato and Kafka deserves some attention.
best wishes, PL.
Mod
ht..."
Welcome to the group, Phillip. As it happens, I have never read Kafka. Although I am preoccupied in the near future with researching and writing two books (one on the US electoral college and the other a revision of my 2000 book on ethics), I will put your Kafka book on my "to read" list and order it when I have an opportunity to read it. I'll also consider ordering your book of Plato translations, though I already have several translations of most of the dialogues.
Alan
dear Alan,as regards the Kafka, no need to purchase Essential Kafka - I can
email you a pdf of my latest version and once you have had the opportunity of looking through it, any comments would be most appreciated. I put more weight on the Kafka, not that the Plato isn't in my mind any less important >> but double translations (it being from Schleiermacher's German) face greater obstacles....
email me at philliplundberg AT earthlink DOT net.
thanks! - PL.
Mod
as regards the Kafka, no need to purchase Essential Kafka - I can
email you a pdf of my latest version and once you have had the opportunity of looking through it, any comments would be..."
Thanks. Will do. Since you are the copyright holder, it won't violate any copyright laws.
My name is Jessica Harris. I'm a high school student from Eugene, Oregon. I have a interest in political discussion but I have a hard time with getting a fact- based conversation going with my peers. I am also interested in looking at different opinions.
Mod
Welcome to the group, Jessica. We do try to have fact-based (and reason/logic-based) discussions here.
Alan
Moderator
My name is Carol. I don't claim to be learned but I know enough to make conservatives uncomfortable. I probably read more feminist philosophy, and Women's Studies is interdisciplinary. They support changing concepts in Positive Science because most political philosophy has left out their perspectives and experiences and can be criticized as androcentric. I will probably just lurk about as I do love the history of ideas anyway.
Mod
Welcome to the group, Carol. Although I am aware of the concept, I hadn't heard the word "androcentric" before and had to look it up. We have people of all perspectives in this group, and it is good to have yours as well. It is not disqualifying that you "know enough to make conservatives uncomfortable."
Alan
Moderator
Welcome Carol. I'm also have argues tô make not only conservatives but democrátics unconfortables. Something is wrong in the system - we're playing a lose- lose game. Best. Ron
Good afternoon! I just concluded five years of military service and as a Christian have an incredible passion for my God and country. This passion coupled with my military experience inspired me to write a book about what the Bible says on the subject of government. It would make my day if some of you would read it and share your thoughts with me in this thread and/or on the amazon page. Even if you are not a Christian, this will be an intriguing read to all who are interested in political philosophy and ethics. Thank you!https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071F67J7F
Mod
Strictly speaking, your approach involves political theology rather than political philosophy. Political theology is based on alleged revelation. Political philosophy is based on reason. See, for example, Heinrich Meier, Leo Strauss and the Theologico-Political Problem, trans. Marcus Brainard (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
The seventeenth-century New England Puritans used political theology to justify their strict theocratic regimes in the New England colonies, most notably in Massachusetts Bay. Under this theocratic rule, Quakers were hanged, Baptists were whipped, imprisoned and fined, and Roger Williams and others who had an interpretation of the Bible that was different from the governmentally approved version were banished. See Alan E. Johnson, The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience (Pittsburgh, PA: Philosophia, 2015).
I do not know whether your book advocates theocracy. However, there is an entire movement (Christian Reconstructionism) in this country that does. Like the seventeenth-century New England Puritans, Christian Reconstructionism advocates a return to a version of Old Testament religious law (a Christian version of Sharia law). It is my view that theocracy is incompatible with the principles of American government in general and with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in particular. For further information, see the following topics in this discussion group: Separation of Church and State; Liberty of Conscience and Toleration and Roger Williams (ca. 1603-83) and Seventeenth-Century Rhode Island Government.
Alan E. Johnson
Moderator
Alan wrote: "Samuel wrote: "Good afternoon! I just concluded five years of military service and as a Christian have an incredible passion for my God and country. This passion coupled with my military experience..."Thanks for your comment, Alan! I do not advocate theocracy. In fact, I would say that my book qualifies as political philosophy in that it applies reason to presuppositions that come from Scripture. All philosophy is reason based on absolutes. The absolutes I use in this book are from Scripture.
Mod
Welcome to the group, William.
Hi, My name is Imran. I studied Physics, and now I work as IT professionals. My topics of interest are: Brain Science, evolution, language. I love to read Philosophy, but lacking a formal training, I find it hard to read the original Giants in this field. Currently, I am planning to read about Ethical Philosophy, so picked up two books by John Rawls and H L A Hart.
Mod
Welcome to this group, Imran. You might be able to pick up some reading ideas by perusing the various topics of this group: we often cite particular books of interest.
Mod
Welcome to the group, Jon. With regard to Bastiat and Rothbard, you might be interested in checking out our topic Classical Liberalism, Libertarianism, and Anarchocapitalist; Objectivism.
Mod
I have deleted your posts regarding a religious subject. Please see the rules of this Goodreads group on the group's home page. See also posts 4 and 6 here and posts 15 and 17 here. This group addresses political philosophy and ethics. Religious matters are off topic and belong in other Goodreads groups.
Alan E. Johnson
Moderator
Robert Wess grew up in Detroit (Pershing High School), attended Michigan State University for one year (Evans Scholars House), then transferred to University of Chicago for BA, MA, and PhD. Minor strand in his scholarship stems from training in Neo-Aristotelian criticism at Chicago under Sheldon Sacks, founding editor of Critical Inquiry. Major strand stems from the influence of Richard McKeon, which led to study of Kenneth Burke. Attended the 1984 conference at which the Kenneth Burke Society (KBS) was formed, received KBS's Distinguished Service Award in 1999 and its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017, served on KBS's Executive Committee from 2002 to 2011 and as KBS President from 2005 to 2008. Since retirement, focus is philosophy. Current work includes consideration of philosophical issues in Burke but focuses mainly on evaluating and advancing the metaphysical turn that appears to be underway at the present time (e.g. "speculative realism") and that could provide a foundation in an age of ecological crisis for an ecological turn in ethics, politics, and aesthetics.
Mod
Welcome, Robert, and also to Jan Arnold, both of whom I have recently "met" through our participation in an online University of Chicago Alumni Association course entitled "Truth and Language," taught by University of Chicago linguistics Professor Chris Kennedy. That course has some parallels to our topics Reason, Logic, Evidence, and Critical Thinking and Public Discourse and Rhetoric. Robert was influenced by (and I believe took courses from) Richard McKeon, a famous University of Chicago philosophy professor and the author or editor of several noted volumes on Aristotle and other philosophers. Although I never met or took a course from McKeon, I have had his well-used edition entitled Basic Works of Aristotle in my library since the 1960s.
Mod
Welcome to the group, J. From what you say, it appears that you already are a critical thinker. That's the way to think--noting what one agrees and disagrees with in a book and why.
Alan E. Johnson
Moderator
It has been said: "Plato is Philosophy" >> if you'd like to read some Plato with reference to Germany's finest, FDE Schleiermacher....I would recommend my translation: Tallyho~ The Hunt for Virtue, Nine Dialogues (in the proper sequence)... may be found:
http://home.earthlink.net/~ushaphil/i...
best wishes, Phillip L.
Mod
I would recommend my translation: Tallyho~ The Hunt for Virtue..."
Phillip,
Please feel free to post your foregoing post (or a similar one) in the Plato and/or Publications of Group Members topics of this group.
Alan
Political Philosophy and Ethics
Books mentioned in this topic
A Brief History of Philosophy: From Socrates to Derrida (other topics)A History of Western Philosophy (other topics)
An Economy of Want (other topics)
Kafka Unleashed: Stories, Dreams & Visions (other topics)
Threeway: A Short Novel for a Long Season (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Seneca (other topics)Augustine of Hippo (other topics)
Georgina T. (other topics)
A peace society advocating social science education as an agency for equitable social development serving as an informative source of literature on the human condition based on applied research and educational practice.
Publications in support of social science education as a means and basis to mitigating conflict are archived in the Social Psychology Collections at the University of Oxford, Bodleian Social Science Library and the Cambridge University Library.
http://mantisinstitute.org