German Political Philosophy

This book combines philosophical, intellectual-historical and political-theoretical methodologies to provide a new synoptic reading of the history of German political philosophy. Incorporating chapters on the political ideas of Luther and Zwingli, on the politics of the early Enlightenment, on Idealism, on Historicism and Lukács, on early Twentieth-Century political theology, on the Frankfurt School, and on Habermas and Luhmann, the book sets out both a broad and a detailed discussion of German political reflection from the Reformation to the present. In doing so, it explains how the development of German political philosophy is marked by a continual concern with certain unresolved and recurrent problems. It claims that all the major positions address questions relating to the origin of law, that all seek to account for the relation between legal validity and metaphysical and theological superstructures, and that all are centred on the attempt to conceptualise and reconstruct the character of the legal subject.

This early work by Sydney Smith was originally published in 1892 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography.

Philosophy and politics make uneasy bedfellows. Nowhere has this been more true than in Nazi Germany, where the pursuit of truth and the will to power became fatally entangled. Though Martin Heidegger's Nazi past is well known and much debated, less is understood about the role of philosophy - and other philosophers - in the rise and development of National Socialism.

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A fundamental question for IR is whether the value system of liberalism can be universalized, or if, in fact, the illiberal reality of international politics systematically rules out such a universalisation. The book addresses this issue by focusing on the rise and fall of a specific liberal project supported by influential German intellectuals.

Germany, as Europe's most powerful state, has a political significance which underlines the importance of twentieth-century German political thought. Yet this tradition has been poorly represented in academic literature. This book offers: an account of German political thought emphasising its diversity and contested nature an overview of the subject that allows access to relatively unknown figures as well as the 'names' of the tradition (Weber, Schmitt, Arendt, Habermas) a demonstration of the political significance of figures better known in other disciplines including law and sociology The book is organised chronologically, with a series of recurrent themes providing analytic unity: (i) the nature of politics (including political vocation and leadership, and definitions of politics), (ii) collective identity, (iii) the rule of law, (iv) the role of the state, (v) the role of political parties and the nature of parliamentary democracy, (vi) state intervention in society and the economy, and (vii) the international order. Pedagogical features include a glossary of German terms and a substantial set of biographical notes identifying the major theorists referred to in the text. Key Features: Challenges established perceptions by presenting German political thought as a contested tradition Presents a rich picture of German political thought by covering a wide range of theorists Its broad chronological range provides the first overview of 20th-century German political thought in one volume

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