Extraordinary Responsibility

Politics Beyond the Moral Calculus
Erscheinungsjahr 2015
ISBN: 978-1-107-44313-6
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 255 Seiten, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 230 mm, Gewicht: 354 g

Careful attention to contemporary political debates, including those around global warming, the federal debt, and the use of drone strikes on suspected terrorists, reveals that we often view our responsibility as something that can be quantified and discharged. Shalini Satkunanandan shows how Plato, Kant, Nietzsche, Weber, and Heidegger each suggest that this calculative or bookkeeping mindset both belongs to 'morality', understood as part of our ordinary approach to responsibility, and effaces the incalculable, undischargeable, and more onerous dimensions of our responsibility. These thinkers also reveal how the view of responsibility as calculable is at the heart of 'moralism' - the pettifogging, mindless, legalistic, excessively judgmental, or punitive policing of our own or others' compliance with moral duties. By elaborating their narratives of a difficult 'conversion' to the open-ended and relentless character of responsibility, Satkunanandan explores how we might be less moralistic and more responsible in politics. She ultimately argues for a political ethos attentive to how calculative thinking can limit our responsibility, but that still accepts a circumscribed place for calculation (and morality) in responsible politics.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Satkunanandan, Shalini

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ethik, Moralphilosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Sonstige Religionen Sonstige Religionen: Theologie, Doktrine

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: distracted by calculation; Part I. Calculation and Indirectness: 1. Nietzsche: morality's debt perspective; 2. Heidegger: the calls of conscience and calculation; 3. (In)calculable conversion; Part II. The Moralizer's Critique of Calculable Responsibility: 4. Plato: the philosopher's turn from debt justice; 5. Kant: the extraordinary categorical imperative; Part III. Turning from Morality in Politics: 6. Weber: the ethos of politics beyond calculation; 7. Darkness at Noon: mis-turn from morality; 8. Conclusion: attention to calculation.

Über Autor(innen)

Satkunanandan, Shalini
Shalini Satkunanandan has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Davis since 2011. She is a past Harper-Schmidt Fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts at the University of Chicago. She has published articles in Political Theory, the American Political Science Review, and Law, Culture and the Humanities.