Public Philosophy in a New Key: Volume 1, Democracy and Civic Freedom

Description

These two ambitious volumes from one of the world's most celebrated political philosophers present a new kind of political and legal theory that James Tully calls a public philosophy, and a complementary new way of thinking about active citizenship, called civic freedom. Professor Tully takes the reader step-by-step through the principal debates in political theory and the major types of political struggle today. These volumes represent a genuine landmark in political theory from the author of Strange Multiplicity, one of the most influential and distinctive commentaries on politics and the contemporary world published in recent years. This first volume of Public Philosophy in a New Key consists of a presentation and defence of a contextual approach to public philosophy and civic freedom, and then goes on to study specific struggles over recognition and distribution within states.

James Tully is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of Victoria, Canada. He is one of the most distinguished political philosophers in the world.

'Overall, this is a rich and also timely work; it is historically erudite, analytically subtle and passionately engaged.' The Cambridge Law Journal 'Tully regards his political philosophy as a public philosophy, engaged in a constant dialogue with political agents. Where and how this dialogue takes place and which political effects it will have are questions beyond its control. The gap between theory and practice thus turns out to be a limit even for a theory that, as far as possible, conceives of itself as practice. Tully's work is exemplary in pushing this limit in ways from which both theory and practice can learn a great deal.' Constellations