Description
Book SynopsisBetrayal seems to have lost its grip on the public consciousness in liberal societies, yet it is all around us, dissolving the thick glue of trust that holds friends, families, and communities together. By focusing on the ethics of betrayal, Avishai Margalit offers a philosophical account of what we owe those who give us our sense of belonging.
Trade ReviewOn Betrayal seamlessly combines analytic rigor with personal memoir: its illustrative arguments are drawn from political history and Biblical commentary, from novels and biographies. It presents a lifetime of reflection on philosophic methodology: it is the culmination of Margalit’s attempts to analyze the meaning and normative force of betrayal as an essentially contested concept. -- Amélie Rorty, Tufts University
This book is written in the analytic style, but in Margalit’s own version of that style, which is wonderfully engaging. Margalit possesses what Keats called ‘negative capability.’ His discussion is provocative and illuminating, without reaching for any kind of irritable certainty. This allows Margalit to connect all the forms of betrayal and to explore their various versions, across many centuries and many cultures. -- Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study
On Betrayal is a continuous exercise in locating the subtleties within our considered moral judgment…Witty and wise, precise and profound,
On Betrayal is an easy but deep read: it sees life as it really is with all its turmoil. -- Dennis O’Brien * Christian Century *
The range of Margalit’s examples is astonishing…Margalit is a connoisseur of thick relations. That doesn’t mean that he loves or admires every community. He isn’t, in fact, a communitarian, but he is much more knowledgeable about and comfortable with communities (and in communities) than most philosophers are, and so he is very good at recognizing when they go wrong. -- Michael Walzer * New York Review of Books *
In remaining loyal to the complexity of his terrain, Margalit ends with the sanguine possibility that betrayal might be unavoidable. -- Luke Brunning * Times Higher Education *
