A traditional interpretation holds that Kant's political theory simply constitutes an account of the constraints which reason places on the state's authority to regulate external action. Alexander Kaufman argues that this traditional interpretation succeeds neither as a faithful reading of Kant's texts nor as a plausible, philosophically sound reconstruction of a `Kantian' political theory. Rather, he argues that Kant's political theory articulates a positive conception of the state's role.

Welfare in the Kantian State

Politics & Social Sciences

Kaufman, Alexander

Philosophy

Oxford University Press

The capabilities approach to equality, developed by Amartyr Sen and Martha Nussbaum, seeks to answer the question: what is a proper measure of a person's condition for the purposes of determining what we owe each other, as a matter of justice? While the capabilities theory has avoided many of the conceptual difficulties that have undermined competing accounts of egalitarian justice, recent criticisms have raised questions regarding the focus, structure and justification of the theory. In this volume, leading scholars present new and original essays that address these controversies.

Capabilities Equality: Basic Issues and Problems (Routledge Innovations in Political Theory)

Routledge

The Precipice Option

It is 1944 during the last fifteen months of WWll. Twelve thousand Jews, men, women, children were being herded daily onto the Budapest train platform for transport to Auschwitz. Yet on an adjacent platform another train was poised to transport one thousand six hundred eighty-four Jews to Switzerland. What was happening here? Why this odd number of Jews on the other train? What and who is behind this incredible, totally unbelievable situation? Sending a train full of Jews to Switzerland in the middle of the war by the SS was akin to sending it to the moon. Concluding that the order must have come down from the highest echelon of the Nazi hierachy, the author's curiosity got the better of him and he embarked on a five year research quest. As the full picture unfolded, layer by complex layer, his doubt on whether there was still any untold WWll story to be told was soon alleviated. The odd passenger train that drew his attention at first, turned out to just be the tip of an iceberg. The author takes the reader along from one incongruous plot to another, to an array of implausible, incredible and surreal sub-plots. The story gallops across Europe, from war-torn, gritty Vienna, Berlin, Hamburg and Budapest, to the Bergen-Belsen and Mauthausen camps, to neutral, peaceful Stockholm and to elegant St. Gallen and Zurich and on to exotic Istanbul, Aleppo, Jerusalem and Cairo, all in an adventurous and breathless chase aimed at beating the clock and save as many lives as possible before war's end. A colorful cast of characters accompanies the reader, among them world leaders and includling Oskar Schindler and Raul Wallenberg. It is a tale of human-nature in all its vagaries, a 'tour-de-force'of brain vs. brawn that challenges the mind, a precipitous gamble of life and death in a fast, high stakes poker game.

History

Military

INTERVALE PUBLISHING

Trawling Twenty Centuries is an intriguing look behind the scenes of the making of a museum, the people and the inevitable politics involved. The excitement grows when the author takes the reader along a fourteen country research quest to create the museum's content. The fast paced, rapidly moving data-trawling operation brings up surprising details of the anthropology, geography, history, religion, architecture and archeology of the times and places. For the reader tempted to follow in the footsteps of the story, the book acts as a remarkable travel guide. It is an information studded analysis of a 2000 year span that connects the ancient with the modern while keenly observing a most unusual cast of international characters with a generous dollop of humor.

Trawling Twenty Centuries: Morphing the Virtual Into Reality - A Case History of the Making of a Museum

Arts & Photography

Alexander Kaufman Consultants, Inc.

It is 1944 during the last fifteen months of WWll. Twelve thousand Jews, men, women, children were being herded daily onto the Budapest train platform for transport to Auschwitz. Yet on an adjacent platform another train was poised to transport one thousand six hundred eighty-four Jews to Switzerland. What was happening here? Why this odd number of Jews on the other train? What and who is behind this incredible, totally unbelievable situation? Sending a train full of Jews to Switzerland in the middle of the war by the SS was akin to sending it to the moom. Concluding that the order must have come down from the highest echelon of the Nazi hierachy, the author's curiosity go the better of him and he embarked on a five year research quest. As the full picture unfolded, layer by complex layer, his doubt on whether there was still any untold WWll story to be told was soon alleviated. The odd passenger train that drew his attention at first, turned out to just be the tip of the iceberg. The author takes the reader along from one incongruous plot to another, to an array of implausible, incredible and surreal sub-plots. The story gallops across Europe, from war-torn, gritty Vienna, Berlin, Hamburg and Budapest, to the Bergen-Belsen and Mauthausen camps, to neutral, peaceful Stockholm and to elegant St. Gallen and Zurich and on to exotic Istanbul, Aleppo, Jerusalem and Cairo, all in an adventurous and breathless chase aimed at beating the clock and save as many lives as possible before war's end. A colorful cast of characters accompanies the reader, among them world leaders and including Oskar Schindler and Raul Wallenberg. It is a tale of human-nature in all its vagaries, a 'tour-de-force' of brain vs. brawn that challenges the mind, a precipitous gamble of life and death in a fast, high stakes poker game.

This is a new interpretation and analysis of John Rawls's leading theory of distributive justice, which also considers the responding egalitarian theories of scholars such as Richard Arneson, G. A. Cohen, Ronald Dworkin, Martha Nussbaum, John Roemer, and Amartya Sen. Rawls's theory, Kaufman argues, sets out a normative ideal of justice that incorporates an account of the structure and character of relations that are appropriate for members of society viewed as free and equal moral beings. Forging an approach distinct amongst contemporary theories of equality, Rawls offers an alternative to egalitarian justice methodologies that aim primarily to compensate victims for undeserved bad luck. For Rawls, the values that ground the most plausible account of egalitarianism are real equality of economic opportunity combined with the guarantee of a fair distribution of social goods. Kaufman's analysis will be of interest to scholars and advanced students of political theory and political philosophy, particularly those working on justice, and on the work of John Rawls.

Rawls's Egalitarianism

Politics & Government

Cambridge University Press

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

Books by Kaufman, Alexander

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

Welfare in the Kantian State

Capabilities Equality: Basic Issues and Problems (Routledge Innovations in Political Theory)

The Precipice Option

Trawling Twenty Centuries: Morphing the Virtual Into Reality - A Case History of the Making of a Museum

The Precipice Option

Rawls's Egalitarianism

Rawls's Egalitarianism