This is a lively and engaging introduction to the contentious topic of Nietzsche's political thought. It traces the development of Nietzsche's thinking on politics from his earliest writings to the mature work in which he advocates aristocratic radicalism as opposed to 'petty' European nationalism. The key ideas of the will to power, eternal return and the overman are discussed and all Nietzsche's major works analysed in detail, such as Beyond Good and Evil and The Genealogy of Morals, within the context (...) of the concerns of modern political theory. The book concludes with an assessment of Nietzsche's enduring relevance and of the insights afforded by contemporary liberal and feminist readings. This textbook will be essential for all students of Nietzsche and of the history of political ideas. It includes a chronology of Nietzsche's life and works and a guide to further reading. (shrink)

Entre o Passado e o Futuro é, entre os livros de Hannah Arendt, aquele que faz pulsar simultaneamente o conjunto de inquietações a partir do qual esta admirável representante da cultura de Weimar ilumina, para usar uma de suas palavras prediletas, o discurso político do século XX. Ele contém praticamente todo o temário de sua obra, constituindo-se, portanto, num ponto de partida por excelência de toda a tentativa de interpretação e organização do seu pensamento. Conteúdo da obra: | Da Dignidade (...) da Política: Sobre Hannah Arendt | Prefácio: A Quebra entre o Passado e o Futuro | 1. A Tradição e a Época Moderna | 2. O Conceito de História - Antigo e Moderno | 3. Que é Autoridade? | 4. Que é Liberdade? | 5. A Crise na Educação | 6. A Crise na Cultura: Sua Importância Social e Política | 7. Verdade e Política | 8. A Conquista do Espaço e a Estatura Humana | Índice de Nomes. (shrink)

CHAPTER ONK Negotiating Positions: The Politics of Virtue and Virtu [Virtu] rouses enmity toward order, toward the lies that are concealed in every order, ...

THE PAST DECADE has witnessed an extraordinary resurgence of interest in Kant's writings on aesthetics, politics, and history. On the Continent much of this interest has centered on the debate between modernism and postmodernism. Both sides of the debate are in agreement that Kant's differentiation of cognitive, practical, and aesthetic domains of rationality anticipated the fragmentation of modern society into competing if not, as Weber assumed, opposed lifestyles, activities, and value spheres, and that this has generated a crisis of judgment. (...) Tradition is deprived of its authority as a common reference point for deliberation; judgment appears to be all but submerged in the dark void of relativism. Yet, having both accepted Kant's differentiation of reason as emblematic of the pluralism of modern life, modernists and postmodernists remain divided in their response to its implications. Modernists--Habermas and Arendt too, I believe, can be classified under this rubric--attempt to circumvent the relativism of cultural fragmentation by appealing to a universal ideal of community. This solution recalls Kant's own grounding of judgments of taste in the notion of a sensus communis. By contrast, postmodernists such as Lyotard embrace relativism. Whereas the modernist emphasizes the capacity of rational agents to rise above the parochial limits of local community in aspiring toward an autonomous perspective, the postmodernist denies the possibility of impartiality altogether, thus binding judgment to the traditional constraints of practice. (shrink)