Defending deep democracy.

详细信息   

• 作者：Keegan ; Christopher William.
• 学历：Doctor
• 年：2005
• 导师：Cho, Kah Kyung
• 毕业院校：State University of New York
• 专业：Philosophy.;Sociology, Theory and Methods.;Political Science, General.
• ISBN：0542195364
• CBH：3179463
• Country：USA
• 语种：English
• FileSize：1270183
• Pages：247

文摘

This dissertation is concerned with the "living issues" that certain philosophers have come to identify with the fundamental problems of the democratic experience in only formally "democratic" societies like our own. Known as deep democracy, this vision of democratic theory has seven fundamental aspects that are anchored by the tripartite nexus of community, communication, and self. An inherently diverse theory of democracy that sees contributions to democracy where others have not, deep democracy purposely fuses once disparate political theories---such as liberalism, communitarianism, critical theory, feminism, postmodernism, and decision theory---to revivify and recapture the essence of living a democratic life.;By synthesizing seemingly incongruent branches of philosophy, unlikely allies are found to support deep democracy. Following the views of such diverse philosophers as Cornel West, Judith Green, John Dewey, Jurgen Habermas, G.H. Mead, Axel Honneth, Benjamin Barber, Mariam Thalos, David Gauthier, Henry David Thoreau, Edward McClennen, and Hans-Georg Gadamer, this dissertation analyzes the profoundly "deep" actualities of democratic life by first arguing for an encumbered, situated view of the self, not the unencumbered self of liberalism that often engenders mere proceduralism; second, establishing the importance of communication to (a) wedding justice to solidarity, (b) having critically open, transforming dialogues that include all, (c) pointing to the "radical" self-transforming process of open exchange, and (d) growing the encumbered self through the process of reciprocal recognition that is at the heart of discourse; third, analyzing the hermeneutic contributions to the openness reflected both by the encumbered self and dialogue, paying heed to the very "existential" process of openness that seems to underline the nexus of community, communication, and self, and fourth, defending this pluralistic conception of democracy from at least two recent critics, Richard Posner and Robert Talisse. The thoughts of this diverse array of thinkers assembled here are astute enough to see that communication, the self, and community are the heart of any truly democratic way of life.;Deep democracy intimates that there are ways and means of intellectual dialogue and caring interaction that befit the true spirit of democracy, something lacking in most of the world's democracies. The suggestion is put forward that democratic values can be cultivated and fostered by a communion of diverse experiences, where open interaction and honest dialogue are seen as a way of living because it fits with how we actually develop, grow, and learn. Unlike the notion that democracy is a market place of voters and votes, deeply democratic thinkers, like Dewey, suggest that democracy is that form of living most in accord with the process of human life itself.;The attempt is to build a picture of democracy that can encourage solidarity as well as justice in our age of pluralism and difference. To this end, it will be shown that the encumbered self, grown through open dialogue that encourages confronting the other, receives only the most attenuated nurturing in a democracy where the emphasis is on formal institutions and the electoral process alone. This dissertation scales the landscapes of philosophical thought to piece together a constellation of thinkers whose works speak to the deep necessities of democracy.