Brad Stetson

Human Dignity and Contemporary Liberalism (eBook, PDF)

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

The author of Human Dignity and Contemporary Liberalism argues that the nature and application of contemporary liberalism is significantly dissonant with the deepest inclinations and most persistent moral sentiments of human beings, and it therefore distorts human self-understanding and defaces human dignity. This mismatch between human nature and the essence of contemporary liberalism hobbles our public life, and-the author suggests-is the Gordian knot that must be loosed if the new millennium is to manifest a more humane and satisfying American civitas. This wide-ranging book begins with a discussion of certain consequences and implications of contemporary liberalism's heavy emphasis on individual rights, moving into a reflection on two general categories of human dignity, suggesting that there is in contemporary liberal thought a lack of clarity concerning the meaning and gravity of this concept. The focus then shifts to the idea of desert or deservingness. The viability of desert, rightly understood, is advanced as a useful general concept for understanding American public life, and as an important tool for restoring a measure of common sense to our politics. The second section of the book concentrates on the actual application of contemporary liberalism's values as it has occurred since the 1960s, particularly in the culturally contentious areas of race and abortion. Emerging from this survey is an unflattering image of a political paradigm which, according to the author, must be abandoned, or at least radically revised, if America is to strike a posture of moral intensity and genuine social understanding.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
• Seitenzahl: 200
• Altersempfehlung: ab 7 Jahre
• Erscheinungstermin: 21. Januar 1998
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781567509458
• Artikelnr.: 72271773

Autorenporträt

BRAD STETSON is Director of The David Institute, a social research group in southern California. He holds a Ph.D. in Social Ethics from the University of Southern California and has written widely on political and religious topics. Brad Stetson lectures in the Religious Studies Department at California State University Long Beach, where he has taught since 1995. He has written widely on religious and social topics, including Pluralism and Particularity in Religious Belief (Praeger, 1994) and Human Dignity and Contemporary Liberalism (Praeger, 1998).

BRAD STETSON is director of the David Institute, a social research organization. Stetson received his Ph.D. in Social Ethics from the University of Southern California. His previous books include: Challenging the Civil Rights Establishment, coauthored by Joseph G. Conti (Praeger, 1993) and Pluralism and Particularity in Religious Belief (Praeger, 1994).