The Good Life and the Good State

A Neo-Aristotelian Theory of Government

Katharina Nieswandt (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

152 Seiten

2025
Anthem Press (Verlag)
978-1-83999-283-4 (ISBN)

Artikel merken

There is no good human life outside of a state, and the good state enables us to live well together – so says Constitutivism, the theory developed in this book. Reinvigorating Aristotelian ideas, the author asks in what sense citizens of modern, populous and pluralistic societies share a common good. While we can easily find examples of cooperation that benefit each member, such as insurances, the idea that persons could share a common good became puzzling with modernity – a puzzlement epitomised in Margaret Thatcher’s ‘What is society? There is no such thing!’ This puzzlement, the author argues, results from our profoundly modern understanding of rational actions, which we see as means toward outcomes. If we allow that not only outcomes but also histories and identities can be good reasons for actions, then it makes sense to see a person’s good and the common good of their political community as constitutive of one another, as Aristotle thought. Building on this idea, the author argues that in designing our institutions, we also give ourselves an identity – in other words, we constitute ourselves as persons.

Katharina Nieswandt is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Concordia University in Montreal. She specialises in metaethics and political theory.

Introduction; 1. My good against the common good?; 2.From ancient city to modern nation state; 3.What is a common good?; 4. What is a state? Why have one?; 5. Reasons for institutions; 6. Collective and personal identity; 7. Constitutivism as a holistic alternative; Acknowledgments; Bibliography; Index

Erscheinungsdatum	17.12.2024
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	153 x 229 mm
Gewicht	454 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Ethik
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Theorie
ISBN-10	1-83999-283-2 / 1839992832
ISBN-13	978-1-83999-283-4 / 9781839992834
Zustand	Neuware