Nietzsches Political Skepticism or Letters to a Young Feminist

Nietzsche's Political Skepticism

Author: Tamsin Shaw

Political theorists have long been frustrated by Nietzsche's work. Although he develops profound critiques of morality, culture, and religion, it is very difficult to spell out the precise political implications of his insights. He himself never did so in any systematic way. In this book, Tamsin Shaw claims that there is a reason for this: Nietzsche's insights entail a distinctive form of political skepticism.

Shaw argues that the modern political predicament, for Nietzsche, is shaped by two important historical phenomena. The first is secularization, or the erosion of religious belief, and the fragmentation of moral life that it entails. The second is the unparalleled ideological power of the modern state. The promotion of Nietzsche's own values, Shaw insists, requires resistance to state ideology. But Nietzsche cannot envisage how these values might themselves provide a stable basis for political authority; this is because secular societies, lacking recognized normative expertise, also lack a reliable mechanism for making moral insight politically effective.

In grappling with this predicament, Shaw claims, Nietzsche raises profound questions about political legitimacy and political authority in the modern world.

Table of Contents:

Abbreviations ix
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: The Predatory State 12
Chapter 2: The Self-Destruction of Secular Religions 36
Chapter 3: Laws of Agreement 59
Chapter 4: Nietzsche as a Moral Antirealist 78
Chapter 5: Nietzsche as a Moral Realist 109
Chapter 6: Nietzsche as a Skeptic about Liberalism 137
Acknowledgments 153
Index 155

New interesting book: Principi di base di controllo di politica

Letters to a Young Feminist

Author: Phyllis Chesler

Phyllis Chesler's Letters to a Young Feminist is a visionary message from a leading feminist revolutionary to the generation of feminists -- women and men -- emerging today. Chesler weaves her personal experiences with the history of the movement to assess the accomplishments and failures of her generation, as she encourages the next to take on what remains to be done. With frankness and candor, Chesler discusses the basic aspects of feminism, explains feminism's relevance in a world that is the danger of taking it for granted, and steers the next generation toward reclaiming feminism for itself. She examines sisterhood, sex, families and motherhood, resistance to the status quo, work, feminist heroism, and the economics of power.

Publishers Weekly

A call to arms in epistolary form, this is an evenhanded if occasionally polemical assessment of the feminist movement's accomplishments and what remains to be done before a feminist vision of society can be realized. Chesler (Women and Madness) doesn't mince words when detailing the ways in which women's lives are still circumscribed by cultural conventions, but her empathetic tone mitigates against angry self-righteousness or condemnation of antifeminists. On the contrary, while she insists that a proactive feminist movement is essential to the well-being of all women, Chesler also argues that feminists themselves must renew their efforts to be sympathetic to a wide range of viewpoints and agendas. Above all, she stresses feminism should stand for tolerance, self-empowerment and resistance to all forms of oppression. She covers a lot of groundmarriage, reproductive rights, sexual abuse, political oppression, career opportunitieswhich necessarily makes for cursory treatment of many topics. Yet Chesler's analysis is cogent throughout, and these essays are laced with compelling nuggets from one who has been on the front lines of the feminist movement for several decades.

Booknews

This book represents an older feminist's efforts to pass on what she has learned to the next generation. Chesler (psychology and women's studies, College of Staten Island) discusses the basic aspects of feminism, explains its relevance in a world that is in danger of taking it for granted, and examines sisterhood, sex, families, motherhood, resistance to the status quo, work, and the economics of power. She is careful to include males in the new generation of feminists, with the last letter written to her son. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Kim France

Part memoir, part manifesto, Letters to a Young Feminist is Chesler's attempt to pass on the kind of wisdom that she and so many women of her generation were left to figure out as they went along.

--Kim France, The New York Times Book Review