Trump and Political Philosophy

This book seeks to address the relation of political philosophy and Donald Trump as a political phenomenon through the notions of patriotism, cosmopolitanism, and civic virtue. Political philosophers have been prescient in explaining trends that may explain our political misgivings. Madison warned during the debates on the Constitution that democracies are vulnerable to factions based on passion for personalities and beliefs; various continental thinkers have addressed the problem of nihilismthe modern loss of faith in objective standards of truth and moralitythat in Max Weber's analysis pointed to the importance of charisma, in Carl Schmitt's to the idea that politics is essentially rooted in the definition of friends and enemies, and in early Heidegger resulted in the emphasis on the enduring significance of local, rather than cosmopolitan values. The former concernsregarding demagoguery, charisma and nihilismwill enable an evaluation of Trump as a political character, while the latter concernsregarding the status of universal versus local valueswill enable us to evaluate the content of Trumpism. Taken together, these essays seek to advance the public conversation about the relationship between the rise of Trump and the ideological forces that seek to justify that rise.

Uses political philosophy to provide the analytic tools for researchers to understand the deeper significant of contemporary events Includes a range of representatives from across ancient, medieval, modern, classical liberal, and continental thought on topics of patriotism, cosmopolitanism, and civic virtue Offers a diversity of contributors whose political leanings are liberal, conservative and radical

Autorentext
Marc Benjamin Sable is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Bethany College in West Virginia, USA.
Angel Jaramillo Torres is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

Inhalt

1. Patriotism, Cosmopolitanism and Civic Virtue: Trumpians and Trumpism.- 2. Aristotle's Account of Factional Conflict and the Rise of Donald Trump.- 3. Roman Parallels: Plutarch and the Trump Election.- 4. Thomism and Trumpism.- 5. Trump as a Machiavellian Prince? Reflections on Corruption and American Constitutionalism.- 6. Machiavelli and Inequality.- 7. Thomas Hobbes's Defense of Liberalism, Populism, and the Rise of Donald Trump.- 8. Hope, Hate and Indignation: Spinoza and Political Emotion in the Trump Era.- 9. Preserving Liberty in Mass Society: Locke and The 2016 Presidential Election.- 10. Civic Dignity in the Age of Donald Trump: A Kantian Perspective.- 11. The Ideological Rhetoric of the Trump Platform and Edmund Burke's Theory of a Generational Compact.- 12. The Aim of Every Political Constitution: The American Founders and the Election of Trump.- 13. Tocqueville's Great Party Politics and the Election of Donald Trump.- 14. Power, Resentment, and Self-Preservation: Nietzsche's Moral Psychology as a Critique of Trump.- 15. Uncivil Society: Hegel, Kojève, and the Crisis of Political Legitimacy.- 16. A Festival for Frustrated Egos: The Rise of Trump from an Early Frankfurt School Critical Theory Perspective.- 17. Nationalism, Universalism and Nihilism: Trump's Politics in Light of the Strauss-Kojève Debate.- 18. Deleuze's Politics of Faciality: Trump and the American of Exclusion.