THE PERVERSION OF AUTONOMY by Willard Gaylin, Bruce Jennings ( 9780878409068 )

Item Details

Title:

THE PERVERSION OF AUTONOMY
COERCION AND CONSTRAINTS IN A LIBERAL SOCIETY, REVISED AND EXPANDED EDITION

By:

Format:

Paperback

List price:	£22.50
We currently do not stock this item, please contact the publisher directly for further information.

ISBN 10:

0878409068

ISBN 13:

9780878409068

Publisher:

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

14 April, 2003

Edition:

Revised and Expanded Edition

Series:

The Perversion of Autonomy

Pages:

304

Description:

Investigate the contentious intersections of interdependence and autonomy, rights and public responsibility. This title examines the abrasion occurring between America's tradition of personal freedom and privacy, as it rubs against the still valuable if almost vanishing ideals of sacrifice and social order.

Synopsis:

Modern psychological and political theory meet head-on in this powerful re-evaluation of America's contradictory and sometimes dangerous addiction to individualism. Best-selling author Gaylin and co-author Jennings investigate the contentious intersections of interdependence and autonomy, rights and public responsibility. They examine the painful abrasion occurring between America's tradition of personal freedom and privacy, as it rubs against the still valuable if almost vanishing ideals of sacrifice and social order. Our current culture of autonomy - championed by both liberals on the left and libertarians on the right - is based on the idea of rationality as the motivation for human conduct. But, as the authors remind us, people are not simply rational creatures - appeals to emotions are always far more effective than logical argument in changing our behavior. This timely edition includes a new preface; updated examples and illustrations throughout; and, new coverage of contemporary social critics and their work since the publication of the first edition.Two essential new chapters, one on the movement to forgo life-sustaining treatment and the other on physician-assisted suicide, particularly clarify the authors' arguments. Drawing on these and numerous other illustrations - with significant emphasis on the state of American health care - Gaylin and Jennings demonstrate that society has not just the right but the duty to occasionally invoke fear, shame, and guilt in order to motivate humane behavior. As cases of AIDS are once again on the upswing, as the dangerously mentally ill are allowed to wander free and untreated, as starvation and poverty still hold too many in its grip in the richest nation on the planet, this controversial book, considerably revised and expanded, is needed more than ever. If we are to indeed preserve and nurture a genuinely free - and liberal - society, the authors suggest that these "coercions" may be essential for the health and the maturity of a nation where we all too often avert our eyes, not seeing that our neighbor is in pain or trouble and needs our help.

US Grade:

College Graduate Student and over

Illustrations:

bibliographical references , index

Publication:

Imprint:

Georgetown University Press

Returns:

Returnable

Some other items by this author:

APPLYING THE HUMANITIES (HB)

COERCED CONTRACEPTION?