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Zusatztext Anatomy of Failure is an intriguing philosophical inquiry. It pursues an ambitious methodological approach that avoids the idealism, or transcendentalism, of the political philosophy that philosophers like Raymond Geuss and Amartya Sen have criticized recently. Its reconstructive method is closely attuned to actual political practice, but strives to refrain from vindicating the status quo. Therefore it focuses on those moments of political rupture in which many sorts of political practice represent themselves as forms of critique of the dominant political order. This is an appealing approach, and Feltham shows how well it works for "unveiling the forgotten model" (p. 251) of joint action. Informationen zum Autor Oliver Feltham is Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at the American University of Paris, France. Klappentext An historical, political and philosophical account of political action, drawing on the work of Alain Badiou. Vorwort An historical, political and philosophical account of political action, drawing on the work of Alain Badiou. Zusammenfassung Modern liberalism begins in the forgetting of the English Revolution. Anatomy of Failure seeks to right that wrong by exploring the concept of political action, playing its history against its philosophy. The 1640s are a period of institutional failure and political disaster: the country plunges into civil war, every agent is naked. Established procedures are thrown aside and the very grounds for action are fiercely debated and recast. Five queries emerge in the experience of the New Model Army, five queries that outline an anatomy of failure, isolating the points at which actors disagree, conflict flares up, and alliances dissolve: Who can act? On what grounds? Who is right about what is to be done? Why do we succeed or fail? If you and I split, were we ever united, and to what end? The application of these questions to the Leveller-agitator writings, and then to Thomas Hobbes and John Locke's philosophies, generates models of political action . No mere philosophical abstractions, the Hobbesian and Lockean models of sovereign and contractual action have dominated the very practice of politics for centuries. Today it is time to recuperate the Leveller-agitator model of joint action, a model unique in its adequacy to the threat of failure and in its vocation for building the common-wealth. Anatomy of Failure is ideal for upper-level undergraduates and postgraduates taking courses in Contemporary Political Philosophy, Continental Philosophy, Modern European Philosophy, Contemporary French Philosophy, Critical Theory and Radical Political Thought. Inhaltsverzeichnis Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations 1. Thrasymachus versus Socrates on Philosophy and Political Action 2. 1647 - the History of the Leveller-Agitators and the New Model Army 3. Hobbes' and Locke's Metaphysics: Substances No Longer Act, Institutions Act 4. Hobbes and Locke on Religious Conflict: When Institutions Act, Subjects Act 5. Hobbes and Locke on Politics: Sovereign Action and Contractual Action 6. Unveiling the Forgotten Model: the Leveller-Agitators on Joint Action Notes Bibliography Index ...
