www.laborstart.org Labour Start
- Original Message -
From: Walt Byars [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU
Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 3:18 PM
Subject: [PEN-L] Books/ articles criticizing this eurocentric idea
Hi, can anyone recommend some books or articles
Walt Byars wrote:
Hi, can anyone recommend some books or articles criticizing the (absurd
sounding) claim that that the idea of political freedom and its
desirability were invented in the West and only exists in other cultures
because of Western influence (and similar such claims)?
I don't
At the risk of more rants, I will also recommend Sen's The Argumentative
Indian. There are a couple of chapters (the first two) that deal with democracy,
pluralism, and voice in a broad (Indian) historical sweep making precisely the argument
that democracy is neither new nor western in
me:
On the other hand, Western-style possessive individualism (a.k.a.
anti-social personality disorder) does seem to have arisen with
capitalism, somewhere between 1600 and 1700. (The first well-known
book with this sort of ideology is Hobbes' LEVIATHAN, published in
1660.) Possessive
I don't know if individualist communitarianism initially had something
comparable to the slaves, but it did differ from possessive
individualism in the sense that it did not place of high-value on
consumptionism, but rather on people developing their own potential --
something like
From: PEN-L
On Wednesday, August 22, 2007 at 16:18:08 (-0400) Walt Byars writes:
Hi, can anyone recommend some books or articles criticizing the (absurd
sounding) claim that that the idea of political freedom and its
desirability were invented in the West and only exists in other cultures
because of
Bruni, Luigino. 2006. Civil Happiness: Economics and Human Flourishing in
Historical
Perspective (London: Routledge).
He says that a very attractive type of individualist communitarianism existed in
Italy in the 13th century until the tyrants took over the city states.
Machiavelli
reflected
