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Philosophy 2016 Philosophy 2016 press.princeton.edu New How Propaganda Works Jason Stanley “[T]he book crackles with brilliant Our democracy today is fraught with political campaigns, lobbyists, lib- insights and erudition, while also eral media, and Fox News commentators, all using language to in uence managing to explain the arcane the way we think and reason about public issues. Even so, many of us preoccupations of analytic phi- believe that propaganda and manipulation aren’t problems for us—not losophy in a way that’s accessible in the way they were for the totalitarian societies of the mid-twentieth to a wider audience.” century. In How Propaganda Works, Jason Stanley demonstrates that —Bookforum more attention needs to be paid. He examines how propaganda oper- ates subtly, how it undermines democracy—particularly the ideals “How Propaganda Works deserves of democratic deliberation and equality—and how it has damaged huge praise and should be read by democracies of the past. anyone who cares about politics Focusing on the shortcomings of liberal democratic states, Stanley pro- and language. Its trove of tools vides a historically grounded introduction to democratic political theory and insights is impossible to as a window into the misuse of democratic vocabulary for propaganda’s completely summarise here.” sel sh purposes. He lays out historical examples, such as the restructur- —National ing of the US public school system at the turn of the twentieth century, to explore how the language of democracy is sometimes used to mask an undemocratic reality. Drawing from a range of sources, including feminist theory, critical race theory, epistemology, formal semantics, educational theory, and social and cognitive psychology, he explains how the manipulative and hypocritical declaration of awed beliefs and ideologies arises from and perpetuates inequalities in society, such as the racial injustices that commonly occur in the United States. How Propaganda Works shows that an understanding of propaganda and its mechanisms is essential for the preservation and protection of liberal democracies everywhere. 2015. 376 pages. Cl: 978-0-691-16442-7 $29.95 | £19.95 Cover art: Fig. 1: Margaret Lucas Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle. Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs. The New York Public Library. Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations, Fig. 2. Buddha Sakyamuni, Fig. 3. The Death of Socrates, 1787, oil on canvas, by Jacques-Louis David, Fig. 4. Baruch de Spinoza, c. 1665. Featured on the cover of The Philosopher: A History in Six Types by Justin E. H. Smith (see page 4). New On Inequality Harry G. Frankfurt “Many people who worry about Economic inequality is one of the most divisive issues of our time. Yet inequality will want to read this few would argue that inequality is a greater evil than poverty. The poor wonderful book and will be pro- su er because they don’t have enough, not because others have more, foundly in uenced by Frankfurt’s and some have far too much. So why do many people appear to be more clear and forceful arguments. In distressed by the rich than by the poor? part, he argues that if we are pre- In this provocative book, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of On occupied with equality rather than Bullshit presents a compelling and unsettling response to those who with alleviating poverty we will be believe that the goal of social justice should be economic equality or estranged from our own lives. That less inequality. Harry Frankfurt, one of the most in uential moral phi- insight alone is worth the price of losophers in the world, argues that we are morally obligated to eliminate the book.” poverty—not achieve equality or reduce inequality. Our focus should be —Richard Robb, Columbia on making sure everyone has a su cient amount to live a decent life. To University focus instead on inequality is distracting and alienating. “Social justice issues are at the At the same time, Frankfurt argues that the conjunction of vast wealth forefront again today, and it’s and poverty is o ensive. If we dedicate ourselves to making sure important that we get the goals everyone has enough, we may reduce inequality as a side e ect. But it’s right. Frankfurt is not alone in essential to see that the ultimate goal of justice is to end poverty, not arguing that equality is beside inequality. the point. But his important book, A serious challenge to cherished beliefs on both the political left and infused with characteristic insight- right, On Inequality promises to have a profound impact on one of the fulness, is written in such a way great debates of our time. that those who need to hear the 2015. 120 pages. message might actually listen.” Cl: 978-0-691-16714-5 $14.95 | £10.95 —Jason Brennan, Georgetown University “Economic equality is one of today’s most overrated ideas, and Harry G. Frankfurt’s highly compel- ling book explains exactly why.” —Tyler Cowen, author of Average Is Over press.princeton.edu general interest • 1 New The Collected Works of Spinoza Volume II Benedictus de Spinoza Edited and translated by Edwin Curley The Collected Works “With this volume, Edwin Curley completes his ambitious project to of Spinoza make Spinoza’s di cult thought accessible to an English-speaking Volume I audience. Curley’s edition sets a very high standard, not only for transla- Benedictus de Spinoza tion, but for scholarly editions of every kind. His translations are both Edited and translated by philosophically astute and readable, while his notes inform the reader Edwin Curley of the latest results of textual scholarship. Furthermore, his multilingual glossary-index is an invaluable guide to Spinoza’s often idiosyncratic “This wonderful volume is as vocabulary. This is an edition of Spinoza for the ages: students and schol- much an edition as it is a transla- ars will be reading Curley’s Spinoza for many years to come.” tion. [Curley’s] renderings bring —Daniel Garber, Princeton University one much closer to what Spinoza actually wrote than do those of The Collected Works of Spinoza provides, for the rst time in English, a any previous translator of Spinoza truly satisfactory edition of all of Spinoza’s writings, with accurate and into English. Curley’s volume readable translations, based on the best critical editions of the original- will stand alone for the foresee- language texts, done by a scholar who has published extensively on the able future; indeed, it is hard to philosopher’s work. imagine anything ever supplant- The centerpiece of this second volume is Spinoza’s Theological-Political ing it as the chief Spinoza research Treatise, a landmark work in the history of biblical scholarship, the rst tool for Anglophones.” argument for democracy by a major philosopher, and a forceful defense —Jonathan Bennett, Philosophical of freedom of thought and expression. This work is accompanied by Review Spinoza’s later correspondence, much of which responds to criticism 1985. 752 pages. 24 line illus. of the Theological-Political Treatise. The volume also includes his last Cl: 978-0-691-07222-7 $120.00 | £82.50 work, the un nished Political Treatise, which builds on the foundations of the Theological-Political Treatise to o er plans for the organization of Forthcoming Spring 2016 nontyrannical monarchies and aristocracies. Combined ebook of both A milestone of scholarship more than forty- ve years in the making, The volumes for $75.00 Collected Works of Spinoza is an essential edition for anyone with a seri- ous interest in Spinoza or the history of philosophy. 2016. 712 pages. 6 line illus. Cl: 978-0-691-16763-3 $55.00 | £37.95 2 • general interest New New Paperback Think Again Would You Kill the Fat Contrarian Re ections on Life, Man? Culture, Politics, Religion, Law, The Trolley Problem and What and Education Your Answer Tells Us about Stanley Fish Right and Wrong “Stanley Fish makes you think. David Edmonds New No matter what you thought, or “David Edmonds bravely attempts thought you thought, on a given The Faith of a Heretic to make possible the impossible, subject—Israel, academia, pickup Walter Kaufmann o ering us this well-reviewed With a new foreword by basketball, American law—Fish will book on the sanctity of life. His Stanley Corngold ip it and spin it and dip it and turn story is enlivened with biographi- it around for you. A brilliant book.” “The case against organized cal details, anecdotes, curiosities, —Mark Edmundson, author of religion has seldom been so pictures and jokes.” Why Read? cogently put.” —Christopher Miles Coope, “You are not obligated to agree —Newsweek Philosophical Quarterly with him and you are not obli- “An honest, uplifting, learned 2015. 240 pages. 10 line illus. gated to like him, but if you care Pa: 978-0-691-16563-9 $14.95 | £10.95 and highly readable argument Cl: 978-0-691-15402-2 $19.95 | £13.95 about the enlarging necessity against conformism. People who One of Choice’s Outstanding Academic of contest in cultural discourse, tend toward any conceivable Titles for 2014 Honorable Mention, 2015 PROSE Award then you are obligated to read form of heresy are likely to nd it in Philosophy, Association of American him, not with some magical ‘open worth ten volumes of standard Publishers mind’—Fish has no patience for inspirational pap.” that concept—but with the full —Life Forthcoming force of the mind you have.” “The book is a demonstration of —New Republic Reconstruction Kaufmann’s high spirits as well A. J. Julius From 1995 to 2013, Stanley Fish’s as his learning and cogency. He “A stylistic gem, Reconstruction provocative New York Times wants, he says, to make the reader is utterly original—this is a book columns consistently gener- feel his own faith is at stake, and with a voice all its own.
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