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Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought

About the Book Series

This series explores core issues in political philosophy and social theory. Addressing theoretical subjects of both historical and contemporary relevance, the series has broad appeal across the social sciences. Contributions include new studies of major thinkers, key debates and critical concepts.

180 Series Titles


The New Materialism Althusser, Badiou, and Žižek

The New Materialism: Althusser, Badiou, and Žižek

1st Edition

By Geoff Pfeifer
November 23, 2016

Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek have become two of the dominant voices in contemporary philosophy and critical theory. In this book, Geoff Pfeifer offers an in-depth look at their respective views. Using Louis Althusser’s materialism as a starting point—which, as Pfeifer shows, was built partially as...

The Metaphysics of Technology

The Metaphysics of Technology

1st Edition

By David Skrbina
November 07, 2016

What is technology? Why does it have such power in our lives? Why does it seemingly progress of its own accord, and without regard to social or environmental well-being? The quest for the essence of technology is an old one, with roots in the pre-Socratic philosophy of ancient Greece. It was then ...

John Rawls and the History of Political Thought The Rousseauvian and Hegelian Heritage of Justice as Fairness

John Rawls and the History of Political Thought: The Rousseauvian and Hegelian Heritage of Justice as Fairness

1st Edition

By Jeffrey Bercuson
August 03, 2016

In this book, Jeffrey Bercuson presents the immense, and yet for the most part unrecognized, influences of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel on John Rawls, the most important political philosopher of the 20th century. While the well-documented influence of Immanuel Kant on ...

Gramsci, Materialism, and Philosophy

Gramsci, Materialism, and Philosophy

1st Edition

By Esteve Morera
May 31, 2016

Western critical theory, Marxism included, has largely been based on a view of historical materialism that Gramsci, among others, developed in his prison notebooks.  For many, Gramsci’s philosophical reflections in prison offered a new foundation for the philosophy of the future.  His ...

The Political Economy of Civil Society and Human Rights

The Political Economy of Civil Society and Human Rights

1st Edition

By Gary B. Madison
May 31, 2016

Madison uses the concept of civil society and his distinctive version of 'communicative rationality' to provide a closely-argued and robust defence of the neo-liberal political and economic tradition. Writing with considerable elegance and humour, the author draws on the hermeneutical and ...

Freedom and Culture in Western Society

Freedom and Culture in Western Society

1st Edition

By Hans Blokland
May 26, 2016

Critically examining conceptions of freedom of some of the leading contemporary philosophers from Isaiah Berlin to Charles Taylor, Hans Blokland explores the value and significance that freedom has acquired on our political consciousness. He looks specifically at: * positive and negative freedom *...

The Politics of Rationality Reason through Occidental History

The Politics of Rationality: Reason through Occidental History

1st Edition

By Charles Webel
December 01, 2015

What are reason and rationality? How significant are recent postmodernist and neuroscientific challenges to these longheld notions? Should we abandon a belief in reason and an adherence to rationality? Or can reason and rationality be reformulated and reframed? And what does politics have to do ...

The Dialectics of Inquiry Across the Historical Social Sciences

The Dialectics of Inquiry Across the Historical Social Sciences

1st Edition

By David Baronov
October 12, 2015

This book turns conventional global-historical analysis on its head, demonstrating, first, that local events cannot be derived — logically or historically — from large-scale, global-historical structures and processes and, second, that it is these structures and processes that, in fact, emerge from...

Conspicuous and Inconspicuous Discriminations in Everyday Life

Conspicuous and Inconspicuous Discriminations in Everyday Life

1st Edition

By Victor N. Shaw
September 08, 2015

In everyday life, people negotiate on issues, entertain offers and counteroffers, and gain or lose in terms of economic capital, political power, communal status, and social influence. Although life goes on in the form of compromise, feelings of discrimination or misfortune haunt consciously or ...

Ignorance and Liberty

Ignorance and Liberty

1st Edition

By Lorenzo Infantino
July 23, 2015

Those with a belief in open society base the demand for liberty on the recognition of human ignorance; we need to be free because we are ignorant and fallible. Free social cooperation permits us to mobilize our knowledge and develop methods of discovery through which we can explore the unknown and ...

Hemingway on Politics and Rebellion

Hemingway on Politics and Rebellion

1st Edition

Edited By Lauretta Conklin Frederking
July 16, 2015

Hemingway has been labeled a ‘communist sympathizer,’ ‘elitist’, and a ‘rugged individualist.’ This volume embraces the complexity of political advocacy in Hemingway’s novels and short stories. Hemingway’s characters physically, intellectually and spiritually become part of resisting current ...

Conflicts in Social Science

Conflicts in Social Science

1st Edition

Edited By Anton Van Harskamp
June 08, 2015

Through detailed case studies, the contributors look at conflicts in social science arguing that they must be resolved at the level of the individual discipline rather than at the level of philosopy. They explore different ways in which social scientists deal with the tension of being ...

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