Social and political philosophy Books

This book brings together philosophical, social-theoretical and empirically oriented contributions on the philosophical and socio-theoretical debate on migration and integration, using the instruments of recognition as a normative and social-scientific...

This volume is based to a large extent on the understanding of biosemiotic literary criticism as a semiotic-model-making enterprise.  For Jurij Lotman and Thomas A. Sebeok, "nature writing is essentially a model of the relationship between...

New philosophical essays on love by a diverse group of international scholars. Topics include contributions to the ongoing debate on whether love is arational or if there are reasons for love, and if so what kind; the kinds of love there may be...

This book will offer a full reconstruction of the history of Theoretical Marxism in Italy between 1895 and 1935, based on a rigorous philological method. The starting term (1895) is marked by the publication of Antonio Labriola's first essay on...

This book is a complete presentation of the most important themes of Theodor W. Adorno's critical theory, and of its relevance for the understanding of the modern society. After an Introduction, which traces Adorno's biographical and intellectual...

This book argues that Marxist theory is essential for understanding the contemporary industrialization of the form of artificial intelligence (AI) called machine learning. It includes a political economic history of AI, tracking how it went from a fringe...

The diagnosis of social pathologies has long been a central concern for social researchers working within, and on the peripheries of, Critical Theory. As this volume will elaborate, the pathology diagnosing imagination enables a "thicker" form of social...

Evidence suggests that economies with technology transfer initiatives provide a better supply of high-quality jobs and tend to be characterized by entrepreneurs with higher innovation contributions. This book explores the effectiveness of technology...

Through an intersectional feminist re-reading of the Habermasian theoretical framework, this book analyses how women's activism has developed and operated in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Chapters look at three key areas of women's activism in Iran: how...

This book proposes an account of the place of the theory of race in Kant's thought as a central part of philosophical anthropology in his political system. Kant's theory of race, this book argues, is integral to the analysis of the "Charakteristik" of...

This book presents argumentation for an evolutionary continuity between human persons and cyborg persons, based on the thought of Joseph Margolis. Relying on concepts of cultural realism and post-Darwinism, Aleksandra Łukaszewicz Alcaraz redefines the...

This book offers a re-evaluation of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, the prominent Italian Renaissance philosopher and prince of Concord. It argues that Pico is part of a history of attempted concordance between philosophy and theology, reason and faith...

This book deals with a concern of how humanity performs toward itself and how it performs within the public realm, and where it must be in relation with others. Public life is not solely about politics but also the political, i.e.,...

This book draws on five philosophers from the continental tradition - Theodor Adorno, Hannah Arendt, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, and Jacques Rancière - in order to "think about thinking" and offer new and surprising answers to the question: How can...

While the deepening structural crisis of capitalism in the 21st century has led to a revival of interest in Marx all over the world, Marx's life-long comrade Frederick Engels has largely remained marginalized. To commemorate the bicentenary of Engels...

This book demonstrates how Fredric Jameson's understanding of the novel form has heavily influenced his work as a critical theorist. It contends that Jameson's idiosyncratic engagements with the literary canon have had a major impact...

The book consolidates systems thinking as a new world-hypothesis that is already suggesting itself behind the advancement of quantum mechanics and Ashby's cybernetics. In particular, it shows how Einstein's misgivings about quantum mechanics boil down to...

Raya Dunayevskaya is one of the twentieth century's great but underappreciated Marxist and feminist thinkers. Her unique philosophy and practice of Marxist-Humanism-as well as her grasp of Hegelian dialectics and the deep humanism that informs Marx's...

This collection explores the arguments related to veg(etari)anism as they play out in the public sphere and across media, historical eras, and geographical areas. As vegan and vegetarian practices have gradually become part of mainstream culture,...

This volume develops and describes an ontology of modern conflict. Modern conflict is a complex adaptive system. As such, it exhibits emergent properties, or properties that are not predictable from simple descriptions of the system.  The Modern...

Considering the history of workers' and socialist movements in Europe, Frontier Socialism focuses on unconventional forms of anti-capitalist thought, particularly by examining several militant-intellectuals whose legacy is of particular interest for...

Henri Lefebvre's Critical Theory of Space offers a rigorous analysis and revival of Lefebvre's works and the context in which he produced them. Biagi traces the historical-critical time-frame of Lefebvre's intellectual investigations, bringing to light a...

Interrogating Modernity returns to Hans Blumenberg's epochal The Legitimacy of the Modern Age as a springboard to interrogate questions of modernity, secularisation, technology and political legitimacy in the fields of political theology,...

This book analyses five forms of transnational evils and offers cosmopolitan recommendations for reducing their occurrence.  With civilisation in crisis it is crucial, now more than ever, to attempt to mitigate the catastrophes that face us in the...

This volume is a reappraisal of the work of Peter Guy Winch (1926 -1997), one of the most important philosophers of the 20th Century. Winch faded into relative obscurity compared to his contemporaries due to a mistaken belief that there are no systematic...

This edited volume brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars to explore the traces of the idea of "Real Abstraction" in Marx's thought from the early to late writings, as well as the theoretical and practical consequences...

Situated within the wider post-secular turn in politics and international relations, this volume focuses not on religion per se, but rather explicitly on theology. Contributions to this collection highlight the political theological foundations of...

This book reports on cutting-edge research concerning social practices. Merging perspectives from various disciplines, including philosophy, biology, and cognitive science, it discusses theoretical aspects of social behavior along with models to...

Alexis de Tocqueville's work touched upon an exceptionally broad range of social scientific disciplines, from economics to religion, and from education to international affairs. His work consistently appeals to scholars dismayed by existing disciplinary...

Since the latest crisis of capitalism broke out in 2008, Marx has been back in fashion, and sometimes it seems that his ideas have never been as topical, or as commanding of respect and interest, as they are today. This edited...

This edited collection offers a comprehensive overview of the different aspects of human-animal interactions in Asia throughout history. With twelve thematically-arranged chapters, this book examines the diverse roles that beasts, livestock, and fish -...

This book offers an epistemological critique of the concept of the individual and of individuality. It argues that because of our bio(techno)logical entanglements with non-human others, billions of microorganisms and our multiple (in)voluntary...

What lies at the foundation of our moral beliefs? If we dig down far enough do we find that our moral values have no ground at all to stand on, and so are apt to collapse upon serious philosophical investigation? This book seeks to answer these and...

This book provides a critical account of the main controversies involving Norman Geras, one of the key modern political thinkers. It moves from his youthful Trotskyism on to his book on Rosa Luxemburg, then his classic account of Marx and human nature,...

Written around 400 B.C. by Kautilya, the 'Indian Machiavelli', THE ARTHASHASTRA was thought lost for more than a thousand years. It was rediscovered in 1905, when scholar Rudrapatnam Shamashastry was asked to catalogue an unpromising pile of...

Living in Disneyland is a short - yet urgent - tour de force exploration of late-stage capitalism, told through the lens of a Baudrillardian perspective. Through an aphoristic and epigrammatic style, Alex Mazey delves into the absurd...

Can we continue as we have, or must we change?Einstein said that repeating the same action over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. In John Fast's world, the two things which stand as shining examples of insanity are...

Unemployed Negativity is a blog kept by Jason Read for over eighteen years. During that time, it has been a reflection on everything from the films of Jordan Peele to the relevance of Marxist criticism for contemporary society. It has reflected on such...

Herbert Marcuse's Negations is both a radical critique of capitalist modernity and a model of materialist dialectical thinking. In a series of essays, originally written in the period stretching from the 1930s to 1960s, Marcuse takes up the presupposed...

Discover the Point of View of a Real MountaineerFor far too many decades, the residents of the Appalachian Mountains have faced the ridicule, prejudice, and misunderstanding from those outside the region.With this book, author Frank Kilgore, a lifetime...

This book focuses on what other volumes have only touched on, that is the factors that contribute to the rise of certain persons and ideas in the field of psychology. Bringing together noted experts in the field, it describes...

Buchanan and Tullock's seminal work, The Calculus of Consent, linked economic methodology to substantive questions in political science. Among the major contributions of their book is a connection between constitutional decision making and...

George Tsebelis' veto players approach has become a prominent theory to analyze various research questions in political science. Studies that apply veto player theory deal with the impact of institutions and partisan preferences of legislative activity...

Lawrence R. Alschuler uses the ideas of Albert Memmi, Paulo Freire, and Jungian psychology to explain changes in the political consciousness of the oppressed. His analysis of the autobiographies of four Native people, from Guatemala and Canada, reveals...

This book is a rigorous, yet accessible introduction into the current philosophical discourses underpinning practices of environmental education. It provides a comprehensive theoretical framework, relating philosophical key...

This book asks whether just war theory and its rules for determining when war is justified remains adequate to the challenges posed by contemporary developments. Some argue that the nature of contemporary war makes these rules...

Being Apart from Reasons deals with the question of how we should go about using reasons to decide what to do. More particularly, the book presents objections to the most common response given by contemporary legal and...