Barren Sacrifice - An Essay on Political Violence

Informationen zum Autor Paul Dumouchel is Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate School of Core Ethics and Frontier Sciences, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan. Klappentext According to political theory, the primary function of the modern state is to protect its citizens--both from each other and from external enemies. Yet it is the states that essentially commit major forms of violence, such as genocides, ethnic cleansings, and large-scale massacres, against their own citizens. In this book Paul Dumouchel argues that this paradoxical reversal of the state's primary function into violence against its own members is not a mere accident but an ever-present possibility that is inscribed in the structure of the modern state. Zusammenfassung According to political theory, the primary function of the modern state is to protect its citizens—both from each other and from external enemies. Modern states need enemies to exist and to persist, not because they are essentially evil but because modern politics constitutes a violent means of protecting us against our own violence.

Product details

• Authors: Paul Dumouchel, Paul/ Baker Dumouchel
• Assisted by: Mary Baker (Translation)
• Publisher: Michigan state university pres
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.11.2015
• EAN: 9781611861839
• ISBN: 978-1-61186-183-9
• No. of pages: 241
• Series: Studies in Violence, Mimesis,; Studies in Violence, Mimesis,; Studies in Violence, Mimesis &; Studies in Violence, Mimesis, and Culture
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > 20th century (up to 1945); Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education