Margaret Gilbert

A Theory of Political Obligation

Membership, Commitment, and the Bonds of Society

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Margaret Gilbert offers an incisive new approach to a classic problem of political philosophy: when and why should I do what the law tells me to do? Do I have special obligations to conform to the laws of my own country and if so, why? In what sense, if any, must I fight in wars in which my country is engaged, if ordered to do so, or suffer the penalty for law-breaking the law imposes - including the death penalty? Gilbert's accessible book offers a provocative and compelling case in favour of citizens'obligations to the state, while examining how these can be squared with self-interest and other competing considerations. Margaret Gilbert offers an incisive new approach to a classic problem of political philosophy: when and why should I do what the law tells me to do? She argues a provocative and compelling case in favour of citizens' obligations to the state, while examining how these can be squared with self-interest and other competing considerations.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Oxford University Press
• 2nd ed.
• Seitenzahl: 344
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. Juli 2008
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 234mm x 156mm x 19mm
• Gewicht: 540g
• ISBN-13: 9780199543953
• ISBN-10: 019954395X
• Artikelnr.: 23518628

Autorenporträt

Margaret Gilbert is Professor of philosophy at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. Educated at Cambridge and Oxford Universities she has held visiting positions as teacher and researcher at numerous institutions including Princeton University, UCLA, the Institute for Advanced Study, Oxford University and King's College London. Her previous books are On Social Facts (1989), Living Together (1996), Sociality and Responsibility (2000), and (in French) Marcher Ensemble.

Inhaltsangabe

I. A central problem of political obligation
1: The problem
2: Obligations: initial points
3: In pursuit of political obligation
4: Actual contract theory: attractions
5: Actual contract theory: objections
II. Societies, membership, and obligation
6: Social groups: starting small
7: Joint commitment and obligation
8: Societies as plural subjects
III. A theory of political obligation
9: Political societies
10: Reconsidering actual contract theory
11: The plural subject theory of political obligation
12: Summary and prospect

Rezensionen

Margaret Gilberts A Theory of Political Obligation is an incredibly rich work on an important topic. Gilbert has written a series of influential and important articles on the nature of social groups and joint action, and all of her work in those articles is impressively synthesised and developed here into what is surely one of the most innovative and intriguing accounts of political obligation currently on offer. Her book repays careful study, and any adequate reply would itself have to take the form of a book. Diane Jeske, Jurisprudence