Overview

"During the Spanish Civil War, George Orwell was asked why he could not shoot an enemy soldier who was running holding up his trousers. Orwell replied 'I had come here to shoot at ""Fascists""; but a man who is holding up his trousers isn't a ""Fascist"". A Common Humanity is a beautifully written, profound and arresting book about what predicaments such as Orwell's tell us about humanity. Drawing on a wealth of important examples including the Holocaust and attempts to deny it, the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the taking of children of mixed blood from Aboriginal parents in Australia, and the work of Primo Levi, Hannah Arendt and Simone Weil, Raimond Gaita sets out a provocative new picture of our common humanity. He urges us to recognize that whilst many of these examples call into question whether there is such a thing as a common humanity, it is not the idea of humanity that is at fault. It is the empty language of rights and obligations we use to explain what a human being is. It leaves no room for our ability to love other human beings and to share with them grief, hope, built, shame and remorse. It is our recognizing that others share these inescapably human features that gives us our common humanity. It is our common humanity that gives us rights and obligations, not our rights and obligations that give us our common humanity."

Full Product Details

Author:   Raimond Gaita
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Edition:   New edition
Dimensions:   Width: 12.90cm , Height: 2.40cm , Length: 19.80cm
Weight:   0.660kg
ISBN:  

9780415241144

ISBN 10:   0415241146
Pages:   336
Publication Date:   18 January 2002
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  General ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 Goodness beyond Virtue; Chapter 3 Evil beyond Vice; Chapter 4 Racism; Chapter 5 Justice beyond Fairness; Chapter 6 Guilt, Shame & Community; Chapter 7 Genocide & ‘The Stolen Generations’; Chapter 8 Genocide & the Holocaust; Chapter 9 Forms of the Unthinkable; Chapter 10 Truth & the Responsibility of Intellectuals; Chapter 11 Goodness & Truth; Chapter 12 Truth As a Need of the Soul; Chapter 13 A Common Humanity;

Reviews

'an absorbing read from beginning to end, its discussions are memorable and in many places moving. A quite exceptional work.' - Tim Crane, University College London 'A wise and beautifully written book. It is a wonderful example of how philosophy can still speak without any condescension to the educated reader.' - Professor Simon Critchley, University of Essex 'A wonderful piece of writing. The disciplined individuality of Gaita's voice shows how a humanly serious practice of philosophy might make a decisive contribution to our public culture.' - Stephen Mulhall, New College Oxford 'Clear, passionate, subtle and profound.' - Christopher Cordner, University of Melbourne 'A book for anyone who is prepared to think seriously. It is also moving in a way that is rare in philosophy.' - Anthony Duff, University of Stirling 'Challenging and disturbing' - Sydney Herald 'An exploration of how people make moral and ethical judgments by a controversial Autralian moral philosopher. Raimond Gaita's insights are original and his prose is as eloquent as it is affecting.' - The Economist, Books of the Year, 2000- 'Gaita's genius... is his ability to weigh the soul on a scale, and to show how goodness and justice might yet prevail.' - The Scotsman-

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Raimond Gaita

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