Suffering, Politics, Power: A Genealogy in Modern Political Theory

Cynthia Halpern

xan. de 2002 · State University of New York Press

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Suffering, Politics, Power argues that human suffering on a global scale constitutes the most urgent and least understood question of contemporary politics and political theory. In the modern age, the experience of suffering is primarily a political problem, constructed out of crucial, conflicting perspectives. The book draws on a genealogy of suffering through the conflicting perspectives of four major political theorists: Martin Luther, Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Friedrich Nietzsche. Although supplying contradictory accounts of the nature of suffering and human response to it, these theorists, when examined together, provide a historical foundation for the political structures of our time and a trajectory for the problematic of suffering which defies all limits. This book works to foster a contemporary political response to suffering, addressing the techniques of its production and representation and the dilemmas of ascertaining causes and responsibilities.

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Cynthia Halpern is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Swarthmore College.