Thomas A. Spragens, Jr.'s Books

Capitalism and Democracy

Prosperity, Justice, and the Good Society

By: Thomas A. Spragens, Jr.

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Capitalism and Democracy

Prosperity, Justice, and the Good Society

By: Thomas A. Spragens, Jr.

This book serves as an introduction to the ongoing political debate about the relationship of capitalism and democracy. In recent years, the ideological battles between advocates of free markets and minimal government, on the one hand, and adherents of greater democratic equality and some form of the welfare state, on the other hand, have returned in full force. Anyone who wants to make sense of contemporary American politics and policy battles needs to have some understanding of the divergent beliefs and goals that animate this debate. In Capitalism and Democracy, Thomas A. Spragens, Jr., examines the opposing sides of the free market versus welfare state debate through the lenses of political economy, moral philosophy, and political theory. He asks: Do unchecked markets maximize prosperity, or do they at times produce wasteful and damaging outcomes? Are market distributions morally appropriate, or does fairness require some form of redistribution? Would a society of free markets and minimal government be the best kind of society possible, or would it have serious problems? After leading the reader through a series of thought experiments designed to compare and clarify the thought processes and beliefs held by supporters of each side, Spragens explains why there are no definitive answers to these questions. He concludes, however, that some answers are better than others, and he explains why his own judgement is that a vigorous free marketplace provides great benefits to a democratic society, both economically and politically, but that it also requires regulation and supplementation by collective action for a society to maximize prosperity, to mitigate some of the unfairness of the human condition, and to be faithful to important democratic purposes and ideals. This engaging and accessible book will interest students and scholars of political economy, democratic theory, and theories of social justice. It will also appeal to general readers who are seeking greater clarity and understanding of contemporary debates about government's role in the economy.

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319

Publisher

University of Notre Dame Pess

Published Date

ISBN 10

0268200157

ISBN 13

9780268200152

Getting the Left Right

The Transformation, Decline, and Reformation of American Liberalism

By: Thomas A. Spragens, Jr.

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Getting the Left Right

The Transformation, Decline, and Reformation of American Liberalism

By: Thomas A. Spragens, Jr.

American liberalism has much to be proud of. It is largely responsible for the democratization of political power during the nineteenth century and the harnessing of buccaneer capitalism, for the New Deal's social safety nets and the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. But as the social agenda—and perceived snobbery—of postsixties liberalism alienated the working classes whose interests liberalism had previously championed, "liberal" soon became a dirty word on the political landscape. Noted scholar Thomas Spragens seeks to uncover the animating purposes, changes, problems, and prospects of liberalism as it is understood in today's political discourse. For if liberalism is to regain its rightful standing, he argues, it needs to recover its populist heart-to recommit itself to the ideal of government of, by, and for the people envisioned by Lincoln. Blending political theory with astute analysis of the contemporary scene, Spragens steps back from the "high liberalism" of John Rawls, Ronald Dworkin, and others, arguing instead that the success of liberalism hinges upon its recognition of the limits of social justice and its rededication to the core values of popular self-rule and universal self-realization—especially the capacity of ordinary citizens for personal development through education, occupation, and the practice of politics itself. Spragens first offers a detailed account of the contrast between the older and more recent versions of liberal public philosophy and considers the causes of these political philosophical transformations. He then examines the problematic aspects of contemporary liberalism and provides suggestions for a reoriented social agenda that is more compelling morally and more appealing politically. He concludes by addressing liberals' legitimate concerns about advancing social equality, their worries about imposing values in a pluralistic society, and their fears regarding the possible dangers of self-rule. Forcefully argued and well grounded within recent debates in political philosophy, Getting the Left Right compellingly argues that if twenty-first century liberalism defines its main mission as the egalitarian reallocation of social resources, it will doom itself to political futility and defeat. But if it instead champions the achievement of a society in which all democratic citizens can govern themselves and lead fulfilling lives, it can write a bright new chapter in its illustrious career.

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352

Publisher

University Press of Kansas

Published Date

ISBN 10

0700616721

ISBN 13

9780700616725

Reason and Democracy

By: Thomas A. Spragens

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Reason and Democracy

By: Thomas A. Spragens

Reason and Democracy breaks new ground in providing a plausible philosophical basis for the communitarian view of a healthy democracy as the rational pursuit of common purposes by free and equal citizens. Thomas A. Spragens Jr. argues that the most persistent paradigms of Western political rationality originated in classical philosophy, took their modern expression in the philosophies of Kant and Mill, and terminated in Max Weber’s pairing of purely technical rationality with arbitrary ends. Drawing on recent work in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of language, combined with appropriate analogies in political thought and action, Spragens maintains that it is possible to discern the outlines of a philosophically cogent and morally beneficial concept of rational practice on the part of a political community. This possibility, he contends, provides a philosophical basis for liberal democratic politics that is superior to utilitarian and deontological accounts.

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304

Publisher

Duke University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0822310686

ISBN 13

9780822310686

Eric Voegelin

In Quest of Reality

By: Thomas W. Heilke

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Eric Voegelin

In Quest of Reality

By: Thomas W. Heilke

During his distinguished academic career, Eric Voegelin was described as the most important philosopher of history and consciousness since Toynbee; similarly, Voegelin has been interpreted by his critics using virtually every ideological label available: fascist, communist, liberal, conservative, existentialist, fideist, socialist, reactionary, Jew, Catholic, and Protestant. With startling new insights into the theoretical foundations of Voegelin's writings, Heilke's gripping analysis and compelling conclusions demonstrate how his subject was primarily a philosopher in quest of reality, and why no ideological category can grasp the core of such an intellectual journey.

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214

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

0847694283

ISBN 13

9780847694280

Civic Liberalism

Reflections on Our Democratic Ideals

By: Thomas A. Spragens

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Civic Liberalism

Reflections on Our Democratic Ideals

By: Thomas A. Spragens

In Civic Liberalism: Reflections on Our Democratic Ideals, prominent political theorist Thomas A. Spragens, Jr. asserts that most versions of democratic ideals--libertarianism, liberal egalitarianism, difference liberalism, and the liberalism of fear--lead our polity significantly astray. Spragens offers another alternative. He argues that we should recover the multiple and complex aspirations found within the tradition of democratic liberalism and integrate them into a more compelling public philosophy for our time--or what he calls civic liberalism. Civic liberalism, Spragens contends, endorses both liberty and equality although neither can properly be understood as a maximizing principle. Instead, liberty should be seen as the constitutive threshold good of autonomy; and equality should be seen as a moral postulate and instrumental good. Moreover, civic liberalism explicitly embraces forms of 'fraternity, ' civic friendship, and civic virtue consistent with respect for social pluralism. Therefore, a better understanding of our democratic ideals will free us from the constrictive orthodoxies of the left and right, lead us toward better public policy, and help us become a well ordered society of flourishing, self-governing civic equals.

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300

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

0847696111

ISBN 13

9780847696116

Selling the Air

A Critique of the Policy of Commercial Broadcasting in the United States

By: Thomas Streeter

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Selling the Air

A Critique of the Policy of Commercial Broadcasting in the United States

By: Thomas Streeter

In this interdisciplinary study of the laws and policies associated with commercial radio and television, Thomas Streeter reverses the usual take on broadcasting and markets by showing that government regulation creates rather than intervenes in the market. Analyzing the processes by which commercial media are organized, Streeter asks how it is possible to take the practice of broadcasting—the reproduction of disembodied sounds and pictures for dissemination to vast unseen audiences—and constitute it as something that can be bought, owned, and sold. With an impressive command of broadcast history, as well as critical and cultural studies of the media, Streeter shows that liberal marketplace principles—ideas of individuality, property, public interest, and markets—have come into contradiction with themselves. Commercial broadcasting is dependent on government privileges, and Streeter provides a searching critique of the political choices of corporate liberalism that shape our landscape of cultural property and electronic intangibles.

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354

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0226777294

ISBN 13

9780226777290

The Politics of Motion

The World of Thomas Hobbes

By: Thomas A. SpragensJr.

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The Politics of Motion

The World of Thomas Hobbes

By: Thomas A. SpragensJr.

Two principal issues interact and overlap in this penetrating analysis: the relationship between Hobbes' natural philosophy and his civil philosophy, and the relationship between Hobbes' thought and the Aristotelian world view that constituted the philosophical orthodoxy he rejected. On the first point Thomas A. Spragens Jr. argues that Hobbes' political ideas were in fact significantly influenced by his cosmological perceptions, although they were not, and could not have been, completely derived from that source. On the second, the author demonstrates that Hobbes undertook a highly systematic transformation of Aristotelian cosmology: he borrowed the form of the Aristotelian cosmology, but radically refashioned its substance to accommodate the discoveries of contemporaries such as Galileo.

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Page Count

225

Publisher

University Press of Kentucky

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813164524

ISBN 13

9780813164526

Reason and Democracy

By: Thomas A. Spragens

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Reason and Democracy

By: Thomas A. Spragens

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295

Publisher

Duke University Press Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

0822310503

ISBN 13

9780822310501

Civic Liberalism

Reflections on Our Democratic Ideals

By: Thomas A. Spragens

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Civic Liberalism

Reflections on Our Democratic Ideals

By: Thomas A. Spragens

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300

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Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

0847696111

ISBN 13

9780847696116

Capitalism and Democracy

Prosperity, Justice, and the Good Society

By: Thomas Arthur Spragens (Jr.)

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Capitalism and Democracy

Prosperity, Justice, and the Good Society

By: Thomas Arthur Spragens (Jr.)

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271

Published Date

ISBN 10

0268200122

ISBN 13

9780268200121

Book's by Thomas A. Spragens, Jr.

Capitalism and Democracy

Capitalism and Democracy

Getting the Left Right

Getting the Left Right

Reason and Democracy

Reason and Democracy

Eric Voegelin

Eric Voegelin

Civic Liberalism

Civic Liberalism

Selling the Air

Selling the Air

The Politics of Motion

The Politics of Motion

Reason and Democracy

Reason and Democracy

Civic Liberalism

Civic Liberalism

Capitalism and Democracy

Capitalism and Democracy

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