George Kateb : Dignity, Morality, Individuality PDF

Edited by John Seery

Part of the Routledge Innovators in Political Theory series

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George Katebâ€™s writings have been innovatory in exploring the fundamental quandary of how modern democracyâ€”sovereignty vested in the manyâ€”might nevertheless protect, respect, promote, even celebrate the singular, albeit ordinary individual.

His essays, often leading to unexpected results, have focused on many inter-related topics: rights, representation, constitutionalism, war, evil, extinction, punishment, privacy, patriotism, and more.

This book focuses in particular on his thought in three key areas:DignityThese essays exhibit the breadth and complexity of Katebâ€™s notion of dignity and outline some implications for political theory.

Rather than a solely moral approach to the theory of human rights, he elaborates a human-dignity rationale for the very worth of the human speciesMoralityHere Kateb challenges the position that moral considerations are often too demanding to have a place in the rough-and-tumble of modern politics and political analysis.

Rejecting common justifications for the propriety of punishment, he insists that state-based punishment is a perplexing moral problem that cannot be allayed by repairing to theories of state legitimacy.

IndividualityThese essays gather some of Katebâ€™s rejoinders and correctives to common conceptions and customary critiques of the theory of democratic individuality.

He explains that Lockeâ€™s hesitations and religious backtracking are instructive, perhaps as precursors for the ways in which vestigial beliefs can still cloud moral reasoning.