Political Judgement (Routledge Library Editions: Political Science Volume 20)

Ronald Beiner

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780415555609
• eBook ISBN: 9781135026813
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Originally published in 1983. One of the basic capacities of man as a political being is his faculty of judgement. Yet for all the books on concepts like freedom, equality and authority, surprisingly little attention has been given to this topic in the tradition of Western political thought. What is the nature of political judgement? What endows us, as human beings, with the ability to make reasonable judgements about human affairs and to judge the common world we share with others? By what means to we secure validity for our judgements? What are the underlying conditions of this human capacity, and what implications does it have the understanding of politics? These questions, central as they are to any reflection on politics have rarely been addressed in a systematic way. This book examines Kant's concept of taste and Aristotle's concept of prudence, as well as recent works of political philosophy by Arendt, Gadamer and Habermas, all crucially influenced by Kant and Aristotle.

Index

action, 13, 14

Aquinas, Thomas, St, 4, 66, 111, 168n., 174n.

Arendt, Hannah, x, 5–6, 11, 12, 25–6, 29–30, 31, 109, 118, 119, 152, 169n.; Between Past and Future, 15; defence of common sense, 16; definition of politics, 12–14, 16 Eichmann controversy, 121–5, 149; Eichmann in Jerusalem, 116, 117, 124, 154; friendship and, 120–2; Gershom Scholem and, 116, 122–4; Habermas and, 29–30; Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy, x; love and, 122–5; ‘On humanity in dark times’, 120–2; On Revolution, 14, 120, 122; phenomenality of politics, 12, 18–19; political judgment and, xi, 14, 107; ‘The crisis in culture’, 18, 21; The Human Condition, 119, 124; The Life of the Mind, x; ‘Truth and politics’, 17

arete (ethical virtue), 74

Aristotle, ix, x, xi, 25, 30, 31, 102, 150, 174n., 177n; arete, 74; ceremonial oratory, 88, 89; ethical cognitivism, 72; ethos, 25; friendship and, x; homonoia, 80–1; judgment, 77–9, 88, 95, 103, 104; judgment and deliberation, 90–1; judgment and friendship, 79–82; legal oratory, 85, 89; Nicomachean Ethics, 72–82 passim, 87, 93, 95, 104, 151, 183; objective theory of judgment, 47–8; persuasion, 87–8; philia, 79–80; phronesis, 4, 12, 16, 24, 64, 72, 78, 87, 88, 90, 107, 111; phronesis and judgment, 74–5, 79, 91–2; political oratory, 85–6, 87, 88, 89; Politics, 90–1, 139; process of deliberation, 83, 90–5; Rhetoric, 83–97 passim; sophia, 16; suggnome, 76; theory of rhetoric, 84, 86–7, 89, 95–7

authority, 3–4

autonomy, 47–8, 102, 108

beautiful, the, 37–8, 39–40, 41, 43–4,...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• One What is Political Judgment?
• Two Possible Avenues of Inquiry
• Three Kant’s Concept of Taste
• Four Aristotle’s Concept of Prudence
• Five Judgment and Rhetoric
• Six With Sympathy and Detachment: Horizons of a Comprehensive Perspective
• Seven Towards a Theory of Political Judgment
• Eight Closing Reflections
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index