Political Philosophy

The world is in turmoil. From India to Turkey and from Poland to the United States, authoritarian populists have seized power. As a result democracy itself may now be at risk. Two core components of liberal democracy - individual rights and the popular will - are at war with each other. As the role of money in politics soared and important issues were taken out of public contestation, a system of "rights without democracy" took hold. Populists who rail against this say they want to return power to the people. But in practice they create a system of "democracy without rights."

Coming home from the war in Iraq, US Army private Roy Scranton thought he'd left the world of strife behind. Then he watched as new calamities struck America, heralding a threat far more dangerous than ISIS or al-Qaeda: Hurricane Katrina, Superstorm Sandy, megadrought - the shock and awe of global warming. Our world is changing. Rising seas, spiking temperatures, and extreme weather imperil global infrastructure, crops, and water supplies. Conflict, famine, plagues, and riots menace from every quarter.

This book is an account of how Dr. Kalam visualizes Information and Communication Technology mining the rural talent. Here, Dr. Kalam presents his dream of schools in India in 2020 as symbiotic nerve centres connecting teachers, students and community; personifying knowledge that exists in the world. He also makes a clarion call to accelerate the process of societal transformation. This would involve raising the standards of governance and safeguarding the sanctity of public institutions.

Given the tumultuous political era in which he lived, Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), the Italian Renaissance author, philosopher, historian, and diplomat, had a front-row seat to observe the political machinations, power struggles, and dynastic changes in Renaissance Europe. He would compile these observations in "The Prince," which would swiftly gain a reputation both as a simple treatise on how to achieve and wield political power as well as an immoral by-the-numbers account of how tyrants can seize and maintain dictatorships.

David Hume (1711-1776) is perhaps best known for his ideas about cause and effect and his criticisms of religion, but he is rarely thought of as a philosopher with practical wisdom to offer. Yet Hume's philosophy is grounded in an honest assessment of nature - human nature in particular. The Great Guide is an engaging and eye-opening account of how Hume's thought should serve as the basis for a complete approach to life. Julian Baggini masterfully interweaves biography with intellectual history and philosophy to give us a complete vision of Hume's guide to life.

Publié en 1848, Le manifeste du Parti communiste est antérieur à toutes les obédiences auxquelles on l'associe machinalement. Marx suit les principes du mouvement dialectique hégélien et l'applique à la politique. On retrouve ici le renversement célèbre du maître et de l'esclave, où c'est finalement le "prolétaire" qui par sa force de production est en position dominante dans la société. Mais cette domination naturelle lui est refusée, il faut donc qu'il la revendique à travers une révolution.

Deepak Chopra's passionate new book, Peace Is the Way, was inspired by a saying from Mahatma Gandhi: "There is no way to peace. Peace is the way." In a world where every path to peace has proved futile, the one strategy that hasn’t been tried is the way of peace itself. "We must not bring one war to an end, or thirty," Chopra tells us, "but the idea of war itself." How can this be done?

Across the West, there is a rising tide of people who feel excluded, alienated from mainstream politics and increasingly hostile towards minorities, immigrants and neoliberal economics. Many of these voters are turning to national populist movements, which have begun to change the face of Western liberal democracy, from the United States to France, Austria to the UK. This radical turn, we are told, is a last howl of rage from an aging electorate on the verge of extinction.

Plato is perhaps the most significant philosopher who has ever lived, and The Republic, composed in Athens in about 375 BC, is widely regarded as his most famous dialogue. Its discussion of the perfect city and the perfect mind laid the foundations for Western culture and, for over 2,000 years, has been the cornerstone of Western philosophy.

Libertarianism emerged in the mid-nineteenth century with an unwavering commitment to progressive causes, from women’s rights and the fight against slavery to anti-colonialism and Irish emancipation. Today, this movement founded on the principle of individual liberty finds itself divided by both progressive and reactionary elements vying to claim it as their own. The Individualists is the untold story of a political doctrine continually reshaped by fierce internal tensions, bold and eccentric personalities, and shifting political circumstances.

Depression is rife amongst young people the world over. But what if this isn't depression as we know it, but instead a reaction to the chaos and collapse of a seemingly unchangeable and unlivable future? In Quit Everything, Franco Berardi argues that this "depression" is actually conscious or unconscious withdrawal of psychological energy and a dis-investment of desire that he defines instead as "desertion." A desertion from political participation, from the daily grind of capitalism, from the brutal reality of climate collapse, and from a society which offers nothing but chaos and pain.

In Parasites on Parade, Larken Rose (author of The Most Dangerous Superstition and The Iron Web) uses his own direct experiences with bureaucratic and judicial stupidity, intrusion, and corruption to illustrate why, everywhere and at all times, in every situation and at every level, government sucks! This snarky, flippant look at the mentality and tactics of various state busybodies also provides an important lesson regarding the true nature of political “authority,” and the problems and abuses it naturally creates.

Liberty of conscience and freedom of thought are twin, core components of modern life in societies across the world. The ability to pursue one's vision of the right and the good, coupled with liberty to pursue individual reason and enlightenment, helped produce so much of modern life that we may be apt to forget that libertarian philosophy was not dictated by Nature.

Though Karl Marx is best known for Capital and The Communist Manifesto, his revolutionary thoughts and ideas had developed over decades spent in study, discussion and association with a variety of organisations throughout Europe and the US, intent on challenging the establishment order. These six very different texts show how Marx’s ideas evolved and how increasingly fierce his views became.

Robert B. Reich makes a powerful case for the expansion of America’s moral imagination. Rooting his argument in common sense and everyday reality, he demonstrates that a common good constitutes the very essence of any society or nation. Societies, he says, undergo virtuous cycles that reinforce the common good as well as vicious cycles that undermine it, one of which America has been experiencing for the past five decades. This process can and must be reversed.

The definitive edition of the late Sir Roger Scruton's philosophical and political essays and reviews, now collected in one volume, edited by Mark Dooley. The philosopher Roger Scruton was the leading conservative thinker of the post-war years. In this audiobook are assembled the very best of his essays and commentaries, arranged thematically. The selection has been made and edited by Mark Dooley, Scruton’s literary executor.

Marx est le plus populaires des philisophes, son œuvre couvrant sociologie, philisophie et économie. Selon lui la philosophie théorique doit se faire pratique, inséparable de la transformation radicale de la société. Nous écouterons successivemen des développements sur : la dialectiqu, l'aliénation, l'économie et le sens de l'histoire. Contenu : Le forgeron d'un instrument moderne de la connaissance Le philosophe matérialiste de l'histoire L'analyste implacable de la réaité capitaliste, pt. 1 L'anlyste implacable de la réalité capitaliste, pt. 2 Le briseur de chaînes.

Best-selling author Chris Mooney uses cutting-edge research to explain the psychology behind why today’s Republicans reject reality - it’s just part of who they are. From climate change to evolution, the rejection of mainstream science among Republicans is growing, as is the denial of expert consensus on the economy, American history, foreign policy, and much more. Why won’t Republicans accept things that most experts agree on? Why are they constantly fighting against the facts?

En esta obra Maquiavelo enumera las condiciones que han de caracterizar a un príncipe, entendida esta figura como la cabeza o jefe del Estado. Podemos decir que es un libro práctico, pues pretende dar normas de acción. Intentó el autor teorizar sobre la naturaleza del Estado, sobre la sociedad en que se sustenta y sobre todo en las formas de adquirir y perder el poder y las formas de mantenerse en él.

Politics in America are polarized and trivialized, perhaps as never before. In Congress, the media, and academic debate, opponents from right and left, the Red and the Blue, struggle against one another as if politics were contact sports played to the shouts of cheerleaders. The result, Ronald Dworkin writes, is a deeply depressing political culture, as ill equipped for the perennial challenge of achieving social justice as for the emerging threats of terrorism. Can the hope for change be realized?