Putting Ideas to Work A Practical

In this new text, Mark Mattern offers a unique alternative to the traditional approaches to the study and teaching of political philosophy. Rather than approaching it solely as a world of abstractions, Putting Ideas to Work emphasizes its practical task. Political ideas drawn from historical and analytical political philosophy are used to help rethink current public problems and imagine potential solutions to them.

Mark Mattern is associate professor of political science at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio

List of Figures

ix

Acknowledgments

xi

Introduction

1

(22)

Good versus bad political philosophy

The nature of truth and the foundations of political philosophy

Tensions in theory and practice

Putting ideas to work...for democracy

Questions, problems, and activities

PART I: The Individual and the Community

1 Radical Individualism and the Tragedy of the Commons

23

(34)

Public problems

More government coercion?

Roots of radical individualism

Questions, problems, and activities

2 Democratic Community

57

(32)

Recognizing interdependence, choosing solidarity

Self-interest rightly understood

Civic virtue

Democratic community

Communitarianism

Community and diversity

Questions, problems, and activities

PART II: Freedom and Equality

3 Radical Inequality and Its Roots

89

(44)

Public problems

Intellectual defenses of inequality

Negative freedom and its linkage to property

Practical tradeoffs between freedom and equality

Questions, problems, and activities

4 More Freedom and Equality?

133

(36)

Different kinds of freedom

Freedom requires restraint

Equality increases positive freedom

Questions, problems, and activities

PART III: Justice and Political Order

5 Thrasymachus Was Right

169

(50)

Public problems

Power and interest

You deserve what you get

Internalized oppression

Questions, problems, and activities

6 No Peace without Justice

219

(42)

Justice and care

Justice, property, and the social contract

Satisfaction of basic human needs

Justice and self-determination

Questions, problems, and activities

PART IV: Democracy and Capitalism

7 An Unhappy Marriage

261

(48)

Public problems

What is democracy?

Liberal democracy

Participatory and liberal democracy compared

Questions, problems, and activities

8 Democracy as a Way of Life

309

(36)

Humanist economics

An economy of sufficiency

A democratic economy

Questions, problems, and activities

PART V: Power and Citizenship

9 Power and the Disappearing Citizen

345

(34)

Public problems

Power and the impoverishment of citizenship

Questions, problems, and activities

10 Power and the Revival of Citizenship

379

(42)

Education for critical consciousness

Democratic culture

Power and collective action

Questions, problems, and activities

Bibliography

421

(18)

Index

439

(20)

About the Author

459

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Putting Ideas to Work A Practical Introduction to Political Thought

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials