David Boucher uses the ideas of western philosophy's most significant thinkers to trace the history of political theory in international relations. He examines current conceptions, offering an alternative thematic interpretation of how the most significant thinkers in the Western tradition perceived relations between communities, nations, states, and the discovery of the new world. His organizing principle centres on the idea that the great philosophers were searching for a criterion of state conduct associated with different theories of human nature and which were used for justificatory, appraisive, and injunctive purposes. The author asserts that great thinkers from Thucydides to Marx formulated and applied these criteria to interpret the changing international system and concludes by showing how contemporary theories compare with and extend the themes addressed by their predecessors.

Political Theories of International Relations: From Thucydides to the Present

Politics & Social Sciences

Boucher, David

Politics & Government

Oxford University Press

David Boucher uses the ideas of western philosophy's most significant thinkers to trace the history of political theory in international relations. His new thematic approach challenges current conceptions of how relations between communities, nations, and states transformed.

This book explores how Hobbes's political philosophy has occupied a pertinent place in different contexts, and how his interpreters see their own images reflected in him, or how they define themselves in contrast to him. Appropriating Hobbes argues that there is no Hobbes independent of the interpretations that arise from his appropriation in these various contexts and which serve to present him to the world. There is no one perfect context that enables us to get at what Hobbes 'really meant', despite the numerous claims to the contrary. He is almost indistinguishable from the context in which he is read. This contention is justified with reference to hermeneutics, and particularly the theories of Gadamer, Koselleck, and Ricoeur, contending that through a process of 'distanciation' Hobbes's writings have been appropriated and commandeered to do service in divergent contexts such as philosophical idealism; debates over the philosophical versus historical understanding of texts; as well as in ideological disputations, and emblematic characterisations of him by various disciplines such as law, politics, and international relations. This volume illustrates the capacity of a text to take on the colouration of its surroundings by exploring and explicating the importance of contexts in reading and understanding how and why particular interpretations of Hobbes have emerged, such as those of Carl Schmitt and Michael Oakeshott, or the international jurists of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.

Appropriating Hobbes: Legacies in Political, Legal, and International Thought

Philosophy

Ethical constraints on relations among individuals within and between societies have always reflected or invoked a higher authority than the caprices of human will. For over two thousand years Natural Law and Natural Rights were the constellations of ideas and presuppositions that fulfilled this role in the west, and exhibited far greater similarities than most commentators want to admit. Such ideas were the lens through which Europeans evaluated the rest of the world. In his major new book David Boucher rejects the view that Natural Rights constituted a secularization of Natural Law ideas by showing that most of the significant thinkers in the field, in their various ways, believed that reason leads you to the discovery of your obligations, while God provides the ground for discharging them. Furthermore, The Limits of Ethics in International Relations maintains that Natural Rights and Human Rights are far less closely related than is often asserted because Natural Rights never cast adrift the religious foundationalism, whereas Human Rights, for the most part, have jettisoned the Christian metaphysics upon which both Natural Law and Natural Rights depended. Human Rights theories, on the whole, present us with foundationless universal constraints on the actions of individuals, both domestically and internationally. Finally, one of the principal contentions of the book is that these purportedly universal rights and duties almost invariably turn out to be conditional, and upon close scrutiny end up being 'special' rights and privileges as the examples of multicultural encounters, slavery and racism, and women's rights demonstrate.

The Limits of Ethics in International Relations: Natural Law, Natural Rights, and Human Rights in Transition

Ethical constraints on relations among individuals within and between societies have always reflected or invoked a higher authority than the caprices of human will. For over two thousand years Natural Law and Natural Rights were the constellations of ideas and presuppositions that fulfilled this role in the west, and exhibited far greater similarities than most commentators want to admit. Such ideas were the lens through which Europeans evaluated the rest of the world. In his major new book David Boucher rejects the view that Natural Rights constituted a secularization of Natural Law ideas by showing that most of the significant thinkers in the field, in their various ways, believed that reason leads you to the discovery of your obligations, while God provides the ground for discharging them. Furthermore, The Limits of Ethics in International Relations maintains that Natural Rights and Human Rights are far less closely related than is often asserted because Natural Rights never cast adrift the religious foundationalism, whereas Human Rights, for the most part, have jettisoned the Christian metaphysics upon which both Natural Law and Natural Rights depended. Human Rights theories, on the whole, present us with foundationless universal constraints on the actions of individuals, both domestically and internationally. Finally, one of the principal contentions of the book is that these purportedly universal rights and duties almost invariably turn out to be conditional, and upon close scrutiny end up being 'special' rights and privileges as the examples of multicultural encounters, slavery and racism, and women's rights demonstrate.

First published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor &amp; Francis, an informa company.

The Social Contract from Hobbes to Rawls

Kelly, Paul

Routledge

This is the first comprehensive study of the political philosophy of the British philosopher R. G. Collingwood, best known for his contributions to aesthetics and the philosophy of history. However his political thought, and in particular his book The New Leviathan, have been neglected, even dismissed in some quarters. Professor Boucher argues for the importance of this political theory and provides a perspicuous account of its development and originality. He contends that The New Leviathan is an attempt to reconcile philosophy and history, theory and practice. Collingwood's distinctive contribution to modern political and social thought is seen as his sustained project of distinguishing utility from right, and right from duty; the passion for history coincides with the ethical thought because Collingwood wishes to identify dutiful, or moral, action with a historical civilization. Drawing on a wealth of manuscript material, this book will prove invaluable to political philosophers and intellectual historians.

The Social and Political Thought of R. G. Collingwood

Cambridge University Press

This is the first comprehensive study of the political philosophy of the British philosopher R. G. Collingwood, best known for his contributions to aesthetics and the philosophy of history. However his political thought, and in particular his book The New Leviathan, have been neglected, even dismissed in some quarters. Professor Boucher argues for the importance of this political theory and provides a perspicuous account of its development and originality. He contends that The New Leviathan is an attempt to reconcile philosophy and history, theory and practice. Collingwood's distinctive contribution to modern political and social thought is seen as his sustained project of distinguishing utility from right, and right from duty; the passion for history coincides with the ethical thought because Collingwood wishes to identify dutiful, or moral, action with a historical civilization. Drawing on a wealth of manuscript material, this book will prove invaluable to political philosophers and intellectual historians.

In the last decade there has been a growing interest in Victorian and Edwardian philosophical thought and in the relation between idealism and liberalism in the same period. This book is an attempt to reconstruct the thoughts of one Edwardian Welsh Hegelian - Henry Jones. The book uses his ideas as a catalyst to guide and explore the various intricate philosophical, political, religious and scientific debates at the close of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. This method allows an investigation of his ideals in a broader intellectual context. It also allows Jones' ideas to resonate within their intellectual environment. Jones had an immense reputation at the time as one of the leading philosophers in Britain, Canada, Australia and the USA, concerned with applying philosophical principles to political and social problems. He gave extensive lecture tours in the latter two countries, participating, in the USA, in the inauguration of the Rice Institute. He was also an active liberal and knew many of the key political figures of this period, like Asquith, Lloyd George and H.A.L. Fisher, amongst many others.

A Radical Hegelian

Vincent, Andrew

University of Wales Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Boucher, David. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Boucher, David

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Boucher, David. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Political Theories of International Relations: From Thucydides to the Present

Political Theories of International Relations: From Thucydides to the Present

Appropriating Hobbes: Legacies in Political, Legal, and International Thought

The Limits of Ethics in International Relations: Natural Law, Natural Rights, and Human Rights in Transition

The Limits of Ethics in International Relations: Natural Law, Natural Rights, and Human Rights in Transition

The Social Contract from Hobbes to Rawls

The Social Contract from Hobbes to Rawls

The Social and Political Thought of R. G. Collingwood

The Social and Political Thought of R. G. Collingwood

A Radical Hegelian