Political Encounters

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Introduction: The ‘Situation’ of Political Obligation

   • Ruairidh J. Brown

   Pages 1-21

3. The ‘Rational Individual’: Rational Paradigms of Obligation

   • Ruairidh J. Brown

   Pages 23-56

4. The Importance of Tradition and Culture: Context-Based Paradigms of Obligation

   • Ruairidh J. Brown

   Pages 57-86

5. The Oppressor and the Oppressed: Marxist and Other Critical Paradigms of Obligation

   • Ruairidh J. Brown

   Pages 87-112

6. The View from Inside: Introducing the Hermeneutical Concept of Encounter

   • Ruairidh J. Brown

   Pages 113-146

7. The Encounter and Obligations

   • Ruairidh J. Brown

   Pages 147-179

8. Political Obligation in a Post-truth Era: Limitations, Critique and a Defence of the Approach Through the Encounter

   • Ruairidh J. Brown

   Pages 181-202

9. Conclusion

   • Ruairidh J. Brown

   Pages 203-207

10. Back Matter

    Pages 209-213

    PDF

This book takes the novel approach of framing Political Obligation as a situation rather than a problem. By doing so, Political Obligation is not considered as an issue to be solved, but a central condition of existence to be investigated and understood. The book launches a hermeneutic inquiry into how this relationship of obligation is constructed through encounters in which the citizen comes face-to-face with the existential manifestations of the State. The book first discusses the dominant approaches to Political Obligation to elucidate the benefits of an existential hermeneutical approach. The notion of encounter is then developed into a hermeneutic approach capable of uncovering and interpreting the arguments, ideas, and narratives of obligation as are communicated in political communities. Finally, the limitations of this approach are considered in reference to the concerns of the Post-truth era.     

• Political Obligation
• The State
• Philosophical Hermeneutics
• Civil disobedience
• existential philosophy
• political authority
• Post-truth
• Rationalism
• Normative Rational Paradigm
• Conservatism
• Communitarianism
• Marxism
• False Consciousness
• Confucian Communitarianism
• Normative political theory
• Associative Theory
• Criminal Justice and Licensing Act (Scotland) 2010
• False consciousness
• Positivism
• Social Contract Theory

“Brown’s stimulating book expands our interpretive horizon by putting Kierkegaard into conversation with a diverse range of interlocutors as well as with varied social contexts.  It shifts our focus from the concept to the living experience of political obligation, allowing the vitality of this experience to emerge through a multifaceted reassessment of what it means to be obligated to our communities or countries.” (Patrick Hayden, Professor, Political Theory and International Relations, University of St. Andrews, UK)

• University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo, China

  Ruairidh J. Brown

Ruairidh J. Brown teaches International Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China. He holds a PhD in Political Theory from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.