The public and its problems
John Dewey
"An annotated edition of John Dewey's work of democratic theory, first published in 1927. Includes a substantive introduction and bibliographical essay"--Provided by publisher.
Read Time: ~4.8 hr
After Tocqueville
by Chilton Williamson (2012)
About this book
"When Alexis de Tocqueville wrote his seminal work Democracy in America (1835), he regarded democracy as the future of the West. Subsequent events, from the collapse of communism to the recent popular uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, seem to confirm his prescience. But a closer look at the history of democracy from the 1830s down to the present reveals a far more complicated picture. In fact, author Chilton Williamson Jr. concludes, the future appears rather unpromising for democratic institutions around the world. After Tocqueville traces that history and examines that future. Williamson shows that in Europe democracy has tended toward socialism, in America toward nationalism. Indeed, the definitions and concepts of "democracy" have become so varied that the very term democracy is in effect meaningless--something upon which people have never been able to agree, and never will"--
Setting / LocationGlobal
Story EraContemporary / Future
Protagonist / CoreAfter Tocqueville Lead Character
Readers who enjoyed this also loved
Building a Bridge to the 18th Century
Neil Postman
"In Building a Bridge to the Eighteenth Century Neil Postman revisits the Enlightenment, that great flowering of ideas that provided a humane direction for the future - ideas that formed our nation and that we would do well to embrace anew."--BOOK JACKET. "He turns our attention to Goethe, Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Kant, Edward Gibbon, Adam Smith, Thomas Paine, Jefferson, and Franklin, and to their then-radical thinking about inductive science, religious and political freedom, popular education, rational commerce, the nation-state, progress, and happiness."--BOOK JACKET. "Postman calls for a future connected to traditions that provide sane authority and meaningful purpose - as opposed to an overreliance on technology and an increasing disregard for the lessons of history. And he argues passionately for specific new guidelines in the education of our children, with renewed emphasis on developing the intellect as successfully as we are developing a computer-driven world."--BOOK JACKET.
Ethics on the ark
Bryan G. Norton ... [et al
"Ethics on the Ark presents a passionate, multivocal discussion - among zoo professionals, activists, conservation biologists, and philosophers - about the future of zoos and aquariums, the treatment of animals in captivity, and the question of whether the individual, the species, or the ecosystem is the most important focus in conservation efforts. Contributors represent all sides of the issues. Some advocate proposals to increase zoos' work in captive breeding programs. Others call for zoos to turn away from exotic, charismatic species and focus instead on community education programs aimed at protecting local fauna and habitats. Still others contend that zoos ought to be abolished." "Moving from the fundamental to the practical, from biodiversity to population regulation, from animal research to captive breeding, Ethics on the Ark represents an important gathering of the many fervent and contentious viewpoints shaping the wildlife conservation debate."--Jacket.
Defending Japan's Pacific war
David Williams
"Often wrongly accused of being fascists, the wartime Kyoto philosophers were among the first non-White thinkers to brood on the secrets of effective national action. They believed, with Marx, that the point of philosophy is to change the world. They exploited a sophisticated idea of history, borrowed partly from Ranke, partly from Hegel, to develop a Japanese understanding of rational self-mastery. This is the first study based on a meticulous examination of the primary sources in Japanese, which clarifies who these forgotten intellectuals were while challenging the orthodox prejudices that explain why we do not know more about them. In their published writings and hitherto secret anti-Tojo seminars of 1940-44, the philosophers of the Kyoto School took the first soundings of the post-White age that will define our tomorrow. They offered us the philosophy of our future."--Jacket.