A mere two decades ago it was widely assumed that liberal democracy and the Open Society it created had decisively won their century-long struggle against authoritarianism. Although subsequent events have shocked many, F.A. Hayek would not have been surprised that we are in many ways disoriented by the society we have created. As he understood it, the Open Society was a precarious achievement in many ways at odds with our deepest moral sentiments. His path-breaking analyses argued that the...

Gerald Gaus was one of the leading liberal theorists of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. He developed a pioneering defence of the liberal order based on its unique capacity to handle diversity and disagreement, and he presses the liberal tradition towards a principled openness to pluralism and diversity. This book brings together Gaus's most seminal and creative essays in a single volume for the first time. It also covers a broad span of his career, including essays pub...

In his provocative new book, The Tyranny of the Ideal, Gerald Gaus lays out a vision for how we should theorize about justice in a diverse society. Gaus shows how free and equal people, faced with intractable struggles and irreconcilable conflicts, might share a common moral life shaped by a just framework. He argues that if we are to take diversity seriously and if moral inquiry is sincere about shaping the world, then the pursuit of idealized and perfect theories of justice—esse...

In this innovative and important work, Gerald Gaus advances a revised and more realistic account of public reason liberalism, showing how, in the midst of fundamental disagreement about values and moral beliefs, we can achieve a moral and political order that treats all as free and equal moral persons. The first part of this work analyzes social morality as a system of authoritative moral rules. Drawing on an earlier generation of moral philosophers such as Kurt Baier and Peter Strawson as...

This book presents an analysis of the political concepts. It focuses on enduring disputes about the nature of freedom, power, equality, justice, democracy, and authority. The book is useful for both first year and advanced students who seek to learn more about political theory.

An updated and expanded edition of the classic introduction to PPE**—philosophy, politics, and economics—coauthored by one of the field’s pioneers**Philosophy, Politics, and Economics offers a complete introduction to the fundamental tools and concepts of analysis that PPE students need to study social and political issues. This fully updated and expanded edition examines the core methodologies of rational choice, strategi...

★暢銷30年的問題解決經典！★為什麼世界上有這麼多問題？因為，問題就是你的「期望」和「感受」之間出現了落差。杜書伍 聯強國際總裁兼執行長李紹唐 前甲骨文台灣分公司總經理專文推薦解決問題之前，先想一想以下6個問題：　　1.問題是什麼？　　2.這是什麼問題？　　3.真正的問題是什麼？　　4.這是誰的問題？　　5.問題是從哪來的？　　6.我們真的想解決它嗎？解決問題，您夠專業嗎？這是一本和問題解決有關的書。它早在1982年第一次發行，被公認為問題解決領域的一部經典。在這本奇妙的小書裡，探討了解決問題時常遇到的思考盲點，以及處理問題的關鍵思維。比方說，書中提到：˙問題就是期望和感受之間出現了落差˙你永遠無法確定自己是否已經取得了正確的問題定義，即使問題已經被解決了。˙每一個解決方案都是下一個問題的根源˙不要急著...

Over the past twenty years, the debate between neutrality and perfectionism has been at the center of political philosophy. Now Perfectionism and Neutrality: Essays in Liberal Theory brings together classic papers and new ideas on both sides of the discussion. Editors George Klosko and Steven Wall provide a substantive introduction to the history and theories of perfectionism and neutrality, expertly contextualizing the essays and making the collection accessible to everyone inter...

`The author has provided us with a masterful overview and critique of liberal theorizing of the past quarter-century. While dealing exhaustively and fairly with each of a variety of broadly liberal approaches, Gaus also presents a compelling argument for his own preferred "justificatory" approach. His analyses range across familiar territory - Berlin, Gauthier,Baier, Habermas, social choice theory, Rawls, and so on - and are alwaysilluminating and, taken together, provide b...

This accessible introductory text discusses how people in a pluralistic society such as ours can accept a common social ethic - a publicly justified morality. It presents analyses of the basic concepts, including justifications of liberty, harm to others, private property rights, distributive justice, environmental harms, help to others and offensive behaviour. Gaus acquaints the reader with the major figures in social philosophy - John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, Thomas Hobbes, John Lock...

First published in 1983. The primary argument of this book is that there is a coherent tradition of liberal thinking that extends from L. S. Mill, through liberals like T. H. Green, Bernard Bosanquet, L. T. Hobhouse and John Dewey to John Rawls. The author places Rawls within a longstanding tradition of liberal thinking, while also arguing that Green and Hobhouse are not simply of historical interest but represent genuine and interesting attempts to develop a modern liberal theory....

The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy, Second Edition,is a comprehensive, definitive reference work, providing an up-to-date survey of the field, charting its history and key figures and movements, and addressing enduring questions as well as contemporary research. Features unique to the Companion are as follows:Extensive coverage of the history of social and political thought, including separate chapters on the development of p...