Free Ebook The Problem of Political Authority: An Examination of the Right to Coerce and the Duty to Obey, by Michael Huemer
Based on the The Problem Of Political Authority: An Examination Of The Right To Coerce And The Duty To Obey, By Michael Huemer specifics that we provide, you could not be so confused to be right here as well as to be participant. Get now the soft file of this book The Problem Of Political Authority: An Examination Of The Right To Coerce And The Duty To Obey, By Michael Huemer and wait to be yours. You saving could lead you to stimulate the convenience of you in reading this book The Problem Of Political Authority: An Examination Of The Right To Coerce And The Duty To Obey, By Michael Huemer Also this is types of soft data. You could really make better chance to obtain this The Problem Of Political Authority: An Examination Of The Right To Coerce And The Duty To Obey, By Michael Huemer as the advised book to check out.
The Problem of Political Authority: An Examination of the Right to Coerce and the Duty to Obey, by Michael Huemer
Free Ebook The Problem of Political Authority: An Examination of the Right to Coerce and the Duty to Obey, by Michael Huemer
Imagine that you get such particular remarkable experience and understanding by just reviewing a book The Problem Of Political Authority: An Examination Of The Right To Coerce And The Duty To Obey, By Michael Huemer. Just how can? It seems to be higher when a book could be the ideal thing to discover. Publications now will certainly appear in published and soft file collection. One of them is this book The Problem Of Political Authority: An Examination Of The Right To Coerce And The Duty To Obey, By Michael Huemer It is so typical with the printed e-books. However, lots of people often have no space to bring guide for them; this is why they can't read guide any place they want.
It can be one of your morning readings The Problem Of Political Authority: An Examination Of The Right To Coerce And The Duty To Obey, By Michael Huemer This is a soft data publication that can be managed downloading and install from on-line book. As understood, in this sophisticated era, modern technology will ease you in doing some tasks. Also it is simply reviewing the visibility of book soft data of The Problem Of Political Authority: An Examination Of The Right To Coerce And The Duty To Obey, By Michael Huemer can be added function to open. It is not just to open up and also save in the device. This moment in the early morning and various other downtime are to review the book The Problem Of Political Authority: An Examination Of The Right To Coerce And The Duty To Obey, By Michael Huemer
Guide The Problem Of Political Authority: An Examination Of The Right To Coerce And The Duty To Obey, By Michael Huemer will constantly make you favorable worth if you do it well. Finishing guide The Problem Of Political Authority: An Examination Of The Right To Coerce And The Duty To Obey, By Michael Huemer to read will certainly not come to be the only objective. The objective is by obtaining the favorable worth from the book until the end of the book. This is why; you need to find out more while reading this The Problem Of Political Authority: An Examination Of The Right To Coerce And The Duty To Obey, By Michael Huemer This is not only how fast you review a publication and also not just has the number of you finished guides; it is about just what you have actually acquired from guides.
Taking into consideration the book The Problem Of Political Authority: An Examination Of The Right To Coerce And The Duty To Obey, By Michael Huemer to review is likewise required. You can decide on the book based on the favourite styles that you like. It will involve you to like reading other books The Problem Of Political Authority: An Examination Of The Right To Coerce And The Duty To Obey, By Michael Huemer It can be likewise about the need that obliges you to review the book. As this The Problem Of Political Authority: An Examination Of The Right To Coerce And The Duty To Obey, By Michael Huemer, you could find it as your reading publication, even your preferred reading publication. So, discover your preferred publication below and obtain the connect to download and install the book soft data.
The state is often ascribed a special sort of authority, one that obliges citizens to obey its commands and entitles the state to enforce those commands through threats of violence. This book argues that this notion is a moral illusion: no one has ever possessed that sort of authority.
- Sales Rank: #2198968 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Palgrave Macmillan
- Published on: 2013
- Released on: 2012-12-11
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 10.81" h x 1.08" w x 5.70" l, 1.00 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 365 pages
- Used Book in Good Condition
Review
'Huemer has produced not just a brilliant work of political philosophy, but a gripping page-turner. With an engaging style and sharp wit, Huemer demolishes two entrenched dogmas: that we have a duty to obey the law, and the state has the right to force us to obey. Huemer's conclusions may be controversial, but he makes them seem like commonsense.' - Jason Brennan, Georgetown University, USA 'Michael Huemer is my favorite philosopher. The Problem of Political Authority is his best book yet. Using moral premises you probably already accept, and clear but subtle arguments, Huemer leads you step-by-step to a radical yet compelling conclusion: government as we know it is an unnecessary evil. If you're tired of political books that merely preach to the choir, prepare to be amazed.' - Bryan Caplan, George Mason University, USA
About the Author
Michael Huemer is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA, where he has worked since 1998. He is the author of Skepticism and the Veil of Perception and Ethical Intuitionism , as well as more than 40 articles in ethics, epistemology, political philosophy, and metaphysics.
Most helpful customer reviews
34 of 34 people found the following review helpful.
Possibly the best work in Political Philosophy I have seen.
By Perry E. Metzger
The book is a gem, destined to become a classic, and any serious student of the field should have it on their shelf. They should even, dare I say, read it.
The topic that Humer’s astonishing tour de force concerns itself with is the moral and ethical underpinnings of state power, an area known in political philosophy as the "problem of political authority".
In considering the justification for the state, a nagging question naturally arises. Most people would claim it is morally impermissible for your neighbor to force you to give money to a charity of his choice at gunpoint. However, in stark contrast, most people would claim it is permissible for the state to do essentially the same thing, that is, to extort taxes from you using the threat of force in order to spend those funds on projects other than your own.
Most people appear to claim there is an important difference between these cases — otherwise, they would not believe in the legitimacy of the state.
The eponymous problem of political authority is the question of what the distinction between these cases might be — on what basis, if any, might we justify this difference in treatment between the behavior we consider ethically justified from individual actors versus the power we accord to the state.
Huemer systematically addresses the justifications that have been articulated for political authority over the centuries, from hypothetical social contract theory to consequentialism and everything in between. I will give away the punchline by noting that his arguments would appear to fatally damage all of them.
Political philosophers often start by attempting to construct a complete moral framework within which they justify their positions. Huemer takes an entirely different approach. He does not assume that we all agree on a single universal moral framework. He only assumes that most of us generally share similar moral intuitions about certain sorts of situations in the average case. (The strongest sort of assumption he demands is that his reader agree that beating people up without provocation is usually bad.)
Because he demands that the reader agree with him on so few things and so weakly, Huemer’s argument gains enormous strength, since there is no need to accept an all-encompassing ethical theory to believe the rest of his arguments.
On the basis of very pedestrian ethical assumptions, Huemer manages to build a case against any moral justification for political authority whatsoever. He engages, attacks and destroys arguments of all sorts with panache. Even John Rawls famous “A Theory of Justice” (perhaps the most cited work written in philosophy in the last century) is mercilessly examined under bright lights and staked through the heart.
One of the book’s greatest strengths is the simplicity and lucidity of his prose. Unlike many of his academic peers, Huemer’s writing is crystal clear and (nearly) jargon free. A bright ten year old would have no difficulty with the language. He does not seek to conceal weakness beneath an avalanche of polysyllabic words and mile long sentences. Instead, he makes his arguments so straightforward to understand that there is little or no room to disagree with him.
I am uncertain as to whether Huemer will persuade many people. As Swift once observed, “it is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.” Most people hold their political positions not as a result of rational contemplation but because they were exposed to a set of ideas at an early age and have an emotional attachment to them that is not easily altered. The fact that Huemer is arguing for unfamiliar idea that goes against most conventional wisdom is probably more important to the average reader than the razor sharp edge to which he has honed his arguments.
Never the less, in a hypothetical world in which all chose their views on the basis of rational consideration, Huemer would be changing hearts and minds by the trainload.
45 of 47 people found the following review helpful.
In succeeding to be clear, calm, dispassionate and fair, the book informs but fails to inspire.
By Duane McMullen
'...a gripping page-turner. With an engaging style and sharp wit...' are among the first words of the first editorial review currently on amazon's page for this book. Oh cruel fate that I believed those words! Having, with an increasing sense of duty, slogged through to the end, I can only conclude they were written as a delicious prank, or a throwaway by a friend of the author compensating for an inability to find time to read a worthy tome. Sadly, despite the book's considerable strengths, its merits did not include being a page turner with style and wit.
Michael Huemer is an anarchist philosopher. Like most anarchists, he is struck by the compelling virtue of anarchist ideas and their value for healing our world. Unlike some anarchists, he also seems well aware of how completely crazy anarchist ideas can seem to the uninitiated. Being perceived as crazy doesn't help communication, even if you are right. This careful, sober and sedate presentation can strike nobody as crazy, though the quiet presentation cloaks incendiary ideas.
This book's strength is not in its ability to grip the reader, nor in new concepts, for the ideas it raises are discussed in great detail in many other places. Rather the book's value is in its up to date presentation of the core elements of the anarchist canon and the care Dr. Huemer has taken to present those ideas in ways that would be accessible to the average intelligent adult, without condescending or sacrificing clarity and rigour. I marked many of Dr. Huemer's formulations to use in my own conversations. Dr. Huemer is also at scrupulous pains to understand opposing arguments and present them, not as straw men, but as the way they'd want to be presented. He is then polite and almost apologetic as he demolishes them.
While many anarchist authors burn with enthusiasm, the electric power of their ideas sparking off the page, Dr. Huemer has tried hard to keep things calm. Converts will be disappointed if, in reading this book, they hope to repeat the power and impact of reading works like Friedman's 'The Machinery of Freedom', Rothbard's 'The Ethics of Liberty' or almost anything by Hoppe. [quick check and, the extensive bibliography at the end of the book has Friedman and Rothbard, but no mention of Hoppe.] If anything, the service provided by Dr. Huemer is in a state of the art presentation of anarchist ideas in a manner so routine and so scrupulously fair as to be completely non-threatening to non-believers.
I regret the decision to publish this worthy book through an expensive, academic publisher. The price, probably triple what it should be for the eBook version (I bought the kindle version), will further reduce this book's reach and impact.
That is unfortunate, for this work of careful craftsmanship and value deserves a wider reach.
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful.
Very thorough, balanced, and in-depth
By eydelber
Finally something that deals with the major thorny issues of political authority, particularly the social contract. The book is incredibly well balanced and deals honestly and directly with opposing theories. It also doesn't pre-suppose some grand theory that anarchists and libertarians usually assert (as you'd guess by the author of Ethical Intuitionism). For people already "sold" on anarcho-capitalism, the second half of the book (which proposes an alternative solution) is very cursory, but at the same time, the approach from the beginning of the book -- of using common sense examples and intuitions to reason about moral and probable solutions and outcomes -- is very enlightening. Overall, this is a great book for on-the-fence libertarians, it's also a great book for non-libertarians since it is so balanced (in considering opposing views), and even for anarcho-capitalists for dealing with major philosophical issues without simple flippant assumptions or remarks.
I'd like to see Dr. Huemer create a webpage which lists all the questions he gets after this book and his responses.
The Problem of Political Authority: An Examination of the Right to Coerce and the Duty to Obey, by Michael Huemer PDF
The Problem of Political Authority: An Examination of the Right to Coerce and the Duty to Obey, by Michael Huemer EPub
The Problem of Political Authority: An Examination of the Right to Coerce and the Duty to Obey, by Michael Huemer Doc
The Problem of Political Authority: An Examination of the Right to Coerce and the Duty to Obey, by Michael Huemer iBooks
The Problem of Political Authority: An Examination of the Right to Coerce and the Duty to Obey, by Michael Huemer rtf
The Problem of Political Authority: An Examination of the Right to Coerce and the Duty to Obey, by Michael Huemer Mobipocket
The Problem of Political Authority: An Examination of the Right to Coerce and the Duty to Obey, by Michael Huemer Kindle
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar