{"product_id":"lectures-on-the-history-of-political-philosophy-9780674030633","title":"Lectures on the History of Political Philosophy","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eConstantly revised and refined over three decades, Rawls's lectures on various historical figures reflect his developing and changing views on the history of liberalism and democracy. With its careful analyses of the doctrine of the social contract, utilitarianism, and socialism, this volume has a critical place in the traditions it expounds.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter the publication of \u003ci\u003eA Theory of Justice\u003c\/i\u003e in 1971, Rawls (1921-2002) became the most influential moral and political philosopher in the Western world. As such, the issuing of this posthumous volume, carefully edited by [Samuel] Freeman, a former student and teaching assistant from Rawls's courses at Harvard University, is a major event. -- David Gordon * Library Journal *\u003cbr\u003eRawls was a dedicated and remarkably winning teacher, deeply admired by generations of grateful Harvard University pupils. Reading \u003ci\u003eLectures\u003c\/i\u003e you can see why. The tone throughout is unassuming but assured, the purpose consistently to make clear, to get into steady common view what he took to be the key issues in the grand texts that he chose to explore. There is something soothing and encouraging about being guided through the works of Hobbes and Locke, Hume and J. S. Mill, Henry Sidgwick and Bishop Butler--and even Karl Marx--in these calm and measured tones...There is much quiet pleasure to be drawn from these pages, as well as a great deal of instruction about the terms in which Rawls came to frame his own ethical conceptions and the secular liberalism he believed them to imply. Anyone seriously interested in the development of Rawls's thinking and his sense of the relations between his approach and those of major predecessors in the history of Anglophone liberalism will find the insight it provides on numerous points indispensable. -- John Dunn * Times Higher Education Supplement *\u003cbr\u003eWhile many contemporary philosophers have deliberately shunned the history of political philosophy as irrelevant to \"doing\" philosophy, Rawls shows himself to be a conscientious and painstaking reader of the great works of the philosophical tradition of which he was a part. He regarded his own work as both indebted to and as culminating the great tradition that he interprets for his readers. -- Steven B. Smith * New York Sun *\u003cbr\u003eJohn Rawls is perhaps the most influential Western political philosopher of the twentieth century. The late Harvard philosopher's 1971 \u003ci\u003eA Theory of Justice\u003c\/i\u003e is often credited with bestowing that title upon him. In that book he drew on the works of John Locke and Immanuel Kant, among others, to criticize utilitarian theory and defend an egalitarian version of political liberalism. This volume draws together his Harvard lectures on political philosophy and liberalism, providing his insights and interpretations of Locke and Kant, as well as Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and others. In these lectures Rawls reveals how he interpreted these philosophers both in light of their historical circumstances and problems they were trying to address, and also in light of contemporary political debates. -- D. Schultz * Choice *\u003cbr\u003eA definitive and magnificent version of Rawls's teachings on the history of political philosophy...The distinction between the rational and the reasonable runs through these lectures, and through all of Rawls's writings. Its importance signals one essential task that political philosophy should assume even in a democratic age: democracies cannot long endure, however high-sounding the principles they profess, unless their citizens learn to love and to practice the civic virtues of fairness and open discussion that alone can make these principles a reality...\u003ci\u003eLectures on the History of Political Philosophy\u003c\/i\u003e shows us a Rawls keenly aware of the historical underpinnings of his own theoretical constructions...His \u003ci\u003eLectures on the History of Political Philosophy\u003c\/i\u003e complement more systematic works such as \u003ci\u003eA Theory of Justice\u003c\/i\u003e. They make plain how the careful analysis of the insights and the limitations of his predecessors helped him to fashion many of the elements of his own political thought...Rawls's writing is at its most powerful when he thus casts aside his contractual scaffolding and speaks directly to our political conscience. Then he impels us to see more clearly than before the moral substance of the democratic ideal. He shows us in an exemplary way how philosophy can be democratic. -- Charles Larmore * The New Republic *\u003cbr\u003eRawls has an enormously authoritative and interesting way of thinking and writing about the history of philosophy. His approach and tone is that of a world-class athlete watching old films to analyze the technique of his great predecessors. It is a pleasure to listen in. -- Matthew Simpson * Journal of the History of Philosophy *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEditor's Foreword   Introductory Remarks   Texts Cited    Introduction: Remarks on Political Philosophy    Lectures on Hobbes   \tLecture I: Hobbes's Secular Moralism and the Role of His Social Contract   \tLecture II: Human Nature and the State of Nature   \tLecture III: Hobbes's Account of Practical Reasoning   \tLecture IV: The Role and Powers of the Sovereign   \tAppendix: Hobbes Index    Lectures on Locke   \tLecture I: His Doctrine of Natural Law   \tLecture II: His Account of a Legitimate Regime   \tLecture III: Property and the Class State    Lectures on Hume   \tLecture I: \"Of the Original Contract\"   \tLecture II: Utility, Justice, and the Judicious Spectator    Lectures on Rousseau   \tLecture I: The Social Contract: Its Problem   \tLecture II: The Social Contract: Assumptions and the General Will (I)   \tLecture III: The General Will (II) and the Question of Stability    Lectures on Mill   \tLecture I: His Conception of Utility   \tLecture II: His Account of Justice   \tLecture III: The Principle of Liberty   \tLecture IV: His Doctrine as a Whole   \tAppendix: Remarks on Mill's Social Theory    Lectures on Marx   \tLecture I: His View of Capitalism as a Social System   \tLecture II: His Conception of Right and Justice   \tLecture III: His Ideal: A Society of Freely Associated Producers   \t     APPENDIXES    Four Lectures on Henry Sidgwick   \tLecture I: Sidgwick's Methods of Ethics   \tLecture II: Sidgwick on Justice and on the Classical Principle of Utility   \tLecture III: Sidgwick's Utilitarianism   \tLecture IV: Summary of Utilitarianism    Five Lectures on Joseph Butler   \tLecture I: The Moral Constitution of Human Nature   \tLecture II: The Nature and Authority of Conscience   \tLecture III: The Economy of the Passions   \tLecture IV: Butler's Argument against Egoism   \tLecture V: Supposed Conflict between Conscience and Self-Love   \tAppendix: Additional Notes on Butler   \t Course Outline    Index","brand":"Harvard University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49403534541143,"sku":"9780674030633","price":999.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780674030633.jpg?v=1730483754","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/lectures-on-the-history-of-political-philosophy-9780674030633","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}