Sachgebiete

Beschreibung:

X, 91 S. u. XII, 455 S. Broschiert.

Bemerkung:

Sehr gute Exemplare. - 2 Bände. - ISBN Bd. 2: 1899093052. - Antonio Rosmini (1797-1855) The Philosophy of Politics is an investigation of the principles underlying society, and of the means society must employ to attain its end. In the first of the two volumes comprising the work, The Summary Cause for the Stability or Downfall of Human Societies, Rosmini considers the fundamental criterion governing the foundation, development and disintegration of every society or association, and applies it in particular to civil society. Drawing upon an astounding knowledge of ancient and modern history, he shows how this criterion serves to validate or condemn activity undertaken by society and its government. Advances in historical knowledge during the century and a half since Rosmini's death have strengthened, not weakened his argument; technological conquests, with their immense diversity and unlimited proliferation of data, make it imperative to return to principle if society, and with it our hope of progress, is to survive. Undirected movement is not sufficient to sustain social well-being, as we know to our cost. Besides illustrating society's objective foundation, Rosmini sets out the parameters within which stability or disintegration can be expected. His detailed descriptions of the four stages through which society passes from its foundation to final destruction provide us with greater awareness of our own condition. They also show how to avoid the blind alleys which, by frustrating social endeavour, compress human energy until it either explodes in revolution or anarchy, or simply disintegrates. In this respect, The Summary Cause is an intensely practical directive for civil society. // Bd. 2: Society and its Purpose is the second and final volume of Rosmini's The Philosophy of Politics. In it, he examines the nature, of all society before investigating the elements which form civil society. Social benevolence, freedom, equality* order and right are discussed in depth. The inviolable rights of the individual, irrespective of membership of any society, are established clearly before the author shows how morality 'tempers and reconciles social and extra-social right'. Society, which is non-existent without the presence of an invisible bond uniting the persons who are its members, must of its nature respect these persons for what they are; the single purpose of society is to provide them with 'true, human good', that is, moral contentment. Whatever detracts from this is per se anti-social. Civil society contributes to contentment of spirit in a special way. Rosmini shows how the general end of all society is specifically determined for civil society as a result of interaction between the practical reason of the people as a whole and the speculative reason of individuals. This interaction depends on virtue for its successful outcome. Rosmini rejects materialism as the determining factor of a successful society, is highly critical of exaggerated expectations as principles of progress, and sees stimulated, unrealisable capacities in the human heart as productive of immense political harm; only virtue can provide the substantial happiness which serves as a necessary basis for the degree of contentment achieved in society. The human spirit as the seat of contentment is the end of politics; as agent modifying itself or acting upon external things for its own sake, it is the one means of politics on which all others depend. ISBN 1899093001