
Imagining Interest in Political Thought
Origins of Economic Rationality
Stephen G. Engelmann(Author)
Duke University Press
Will be published approx. on 5. September 2003
Book
Paperback/Softback
208 pages
978-0-8223-3122-3 (ISBN)
Description
Imagining Interest in Political Thought argues that monistic interest-or the shaping and coordination of different pursuits through imagined economies of self and public interest-constitutes the end and means of contemporary liberal government. The paradigmatic theorist of monistic interest is the English political philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), whose concept of utilitarianism calls for maximization of pleasure by both individuals and the state. Stephen G. Engelmann contends that commentators have too quickly dismissed Bentham's philosophy as a crude materialism with antiliberal tendencies. He places Benthamite utilitarianism at the center of his account and, in so doing, reclaims Bentham for liberal political theory.Tracing the development of monistic interest from its origins in Reformation political theory and theology through late-twentieth-century neoliberalism, Engelmann reconceptualizes the history of liberalism as consisting of phases in the history of monistic interest or economic government. He describes how monistic interest, as formulated by Bentham, is made up of the individual's imagined expectations, which are constructed by the very regime that maximizes them. He asserts that this construction of interests is not the work of a self-serving manipulative state. Rather, the state, which is itself subject to strict economic regulation, is only one cluster of myriad "public" and "private" agencies that produce and coordinate expectations. In place of a liberal vision in which government appears only as a protector of the free pursuit of interest, Engelmann posits that the free pursuit of interest is itself a mode of government, one that deploys individual imagination and choice as its agents.
Reviews / Votes
"Imagining Interest in Political Thought is an extremely impressive, powerful, and exciting work which casts important light on a crucial yet surprisingly neglected aspect of the history of political thought: the emergence of utilitarianism as a major political theory and its subversion of conceptions of natural law and civic humanism as the basis for social cooperation."-Philip Schofield, General Editor, The Collected Works of Jeremy BenthamMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
North Carolina
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 237 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
295 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8223-3122-3 (9780822331223)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Stephen G. Engelmann is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Content
Acknowledgments ix
1. Introduction 1
2. Against the Usual Story 17
3. Virtuous Economies 35
4. Imagining Interest 48
5. State Rationality 77
6. The Public Interest 104
7. The Economic Polity 141
Notes 151
Index 185
1. Introduction 1
2. Against the Usual Story 17
3. Virtuous Economies 35
4. Imagining Interest 48
5. State Rationality 77
6. The Public Interest 104
7. The Economic Polity 141
Notes 151
Index 185