Just Finished Reading: Political Philosophy – A Very Short Introduction by David Miller.

Yes, another VSI book. I’m certainly working my way through them at quite a pace. I just hope that as well as being interesting they’re going to turn out to be useful too.

Anyway…. As with most of these books the title is pretty self-explanatory. Professor Miller outlines the major themes of Political philosophy as well as giving his own opinions on the subjects he covers. These subjects are – The need for political philosophy which was nicely illustrated by the Allegory of Good and Bad Government by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, the roots of political Authority, the various meanings of Democracy, the idea of Freedoms and the limits of Government because of them, the idea of Justice and the modern idea of Social justice, the impact of feminism and multiculturalism and finally a section on how States interact with each other on the global stage and the ideal of Global justice.

All in all quite a fast romp through just about every subject in the political philosophy handbook. Unlike the previous VSI book on Foucault I did manage to keep up with this one without bending my mind too much. It all seemed to be pretty straight forward (which was comforting). Like all of my previous VSI book this managed to expand my knowledge of the subject and prompt me to read further on the subject too, so they have all performed exactly as promised. A highly recommended series of books.