To which institutions or social practices should we grant authority?
When should we instead assert our own sense of what is right or good
or necessary? In this book, James Boyd White shows how texts by some
of our most important thinkers and writers—including Plato,
Shakespeare, Dickinson, Mandela, and Lincoln—answer these questions,
not in the abstract, but in the way they wrestle with the claims of
the world and self in particular historical and cultural contexts. As
they define afresh the institutions or practices for which they claim
(or resist) authority, they create authorities of their own, in the
very modes of thought and expression they employ. They imagine their
world anew and transform the languages that give it meaning. In so
doing, White maintains, these works teach us about how to read and
judge claims of authority made by others upon us; how to decide to
which institutions and practices we should grant authority; and how to
create authorities of our own through our thoughts and arguments.
Elegant and accessible, this book will appeal to anyone wanting to
better understand one of the primary processes of our social and
political lives.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780226056357
Publisert
2018
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Vendor
University of Chicago Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter