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REIMAGINING DEMOCRATIC THEORY FOR SOCIAL INDIVIDUALS.
- Source :
- Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science; Mar2011, Vol. 46 Issue 1, p224-245, 22p
- Publication Year :
- 2011
-
Abstract
- The Western conception of the individual as a rational, self-directing agent is a mythology that organizes and distorts religion, science, economics, and politics. It produces an abstracted and atomized form of engagement that is fatal to collective self-governance. And it turns democracy into the enemy of equality. Considering the meaning of democracy and autonomy from a perspective that takes the subject as truly social would refocus our attention on the constitutive contexts and practices necessary for the production of citizens who are capable of meaningful self-governance. Under modern conditions, it is in the development of sexual autonomy that we learn how to take initiative with respect to our well-being and do so in concert with others. Where the view of rational agency as the defining characteristic of humanity yields a deracinated view of autonomy, a more realistic, humanistic view that we are, necessarily, social beings yields a view of freedom and self-governance as social phenomena that require empathy, negotiation, compromise, cooperation, and mutual recognition and respect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 05912385
- Volume :
- 46
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 58567287
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9744.2010.01167.x