David Boucher Knihy

A concise introduction to the ideas and writings of the British Idealists. >

David Boucher surveys the history of thinking about human rights and shows that far from being seen as universal and emancipatory, they have almost always privileged certain groups in relation to others

A comprehensive introduction to the history of Western political thought written by a line-up of internationally renowned scholars from four continents. This definitive collection provides an overview of the canon of great theorists from Socrates and the Sophists to contemporary thinkers suchas Habermas and Foucault. Each contributor critically discusses the ideas and significance of each thinker and gives a summation of the best contemporary scholarship in the area. This volume will become the major resource for all students of political thought over the next generation.

"Both Dylan and Cohen have been a presence on the music and poetry landscape spanning six decades. This book begins with a discussion of their contemporary importance, and how they have sustained their enduring appeal as performers and recording artists. The focus then returns to their ambitions when they first started out, arguing that they both shared the aspirations of the Beat Generation of Ginsberg, Kerouac and Corso to be as famous as Dylan Thomas and live the life of his sense of unconditional social irresponsibility. The 'Rimbaud of Cwmdonkin Drive' took America by storm, demonstrating that the bohemian poet could earn a living outside the academy. The fame of Dylan and Cohen, while it fluctuated over the decades, was sustained and was sustainable because they self-consciously adopted different personas, or masks, to distance themselves from the public self. This necessarily requires an exploration of their relation to religion as avenues to find and preserve their inner identities. Their lyrics and poetry are explored in the context of the relation between poetry and song, and of Lorca's concepts of the poetry of inspiration, and the deep dark emotional depths of 'duende.' Such ideas draw upon the dislocation of the mind, and the liberation of the senses that so struck Dylan and Cohen when they first read the poetry and letters of Arthur Rimbaud and Federico Garcaia Lorca. We see that the performance and the poetry are integral, and the 'duende,' or passion, of the delivery, is inseparable from the lyric or poetry, and common to Dylan, Cohen and the Beat Generation"-- Provided by publisher

First published in 2004. WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE SOCIAL CONTRACT IN MODERN POLITICAL THOUGHT? The concept of a social contract has been central to political thought since the seventeenth century. Contract theory has been used to justify political authority, to account for the origins of the state, and to provide foundations for moral values and the creation of a just society. In The Social Contract from Hobbes to Rawls, leading scholars from Britain and America survey the history of contractarian thought and the major debates in political theory which surround the notion of the social contract. The book examines the critical reception to the ideas of thinkers including Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hegel and Marx, and includes the more contemporary ideas of John Rawls and David Gauthier. It also incorporates discussions of international relations theory and feminist responses to contractarianism. Together, the essays provide a comprehensive introduction to theories and critiques of the social contract within a broad political theoretical framework.