The Needs of Strangers
Michael Ignatieff - Author
ISBN 9780140086812 | 160 pages | 03 Jun 1986 | Penguin | 4.60 x 7.44in | Adult
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What do we need in order to survive?
Introduction: Tragedy and UtopiaWhose needs do we have a right to speak for? Which needs can be satisfied through political actions, and which cannot? To answer these vital questions, Michael Ignatieff returns to the ancient languages of religion, art, and tragedy—and to important texts by Shakespeare, St. Augustine, and the great writers of the Enlightenment. Drawing on these sources, he has written an incisive, moving interpretation of community and democracy in a work that not only examines the breakdown of human solidarity but shows how it might be re-created. The Needs of Strangers restores philosophy to its proper place as a guide to the art of being human. 1. The Natural and the Social: King Lear 2. Body and Spirit: Augustine, Bosch, Erasmus, Pascal 3. Metaphysics and the Market: Hume and Boswell 4. The Market and the Republic: Smith and Rousseau Conclusion: Homelessness and Belonging Notes Index "Elegant meditations on human need. Ignatieff says something concrete and serious about each of his large topics." —Michael Walzer, The New Republic
"Ignatieff frames his questions with passion and precision [in a] searching and beautifully written meditation on human needs."
"Michael Ignatieff writes an urgent prose … he will convince people, in highly readable fashion, that the ideas he discusses really matter." |
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