How Much Globalization Can We Bear? - Softcover

Rüdiger Safranski

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0745633897 ISBN 13: 9780745633893

Publisher: Polity, 2006

Synopsis

According to current deabtes, ’individualization’ has frequently been proposed as the conceptual counterpart to ’globalization’. It has often seemed that nothing would be left once these processes have fully unfolded, other than individual human atoms dispersed on a globe without any political, economic or cultural structures.

Regardless of whether this description is based on any good and valid observation, nobody drew the conclusion that suddenly emerges as evident after reading Rüdiger Safranski’s lucid and timely exploration of the issue: globalization, if it occurs, means a radical change in the human condition. It brings human being in direct confrontation with the world in its totality. Almost unnoticed in broader debate, the scenario of globalization entails a return - in new a radical guise - of the time-honoured question of the ways of being-in-the-world of human beings.

In this compelling new book, the philosopher Rüdiger Safranski grapples with the pressing problems of the global age: ‘Big Brother’ states, terrorism, international security and the seeming impossibility of ‘world’ peace. He suggests that the era ofglobalization should not be thought of as that epoch in world history in which all human beings will see themselves in the same, indistinct situation. There will always be, Sanfranski argues, some need for understanding one’s own situation by drawing boundaries and conceptualizing ‘otherness’ and individuality.

About this title

About the Author:

R. Safranski, Philosopher and Writer

Review:

"A slightly eccentric, but very enjoyable, account of globalization."
Australian Journal of Political Science

"We might wonder whether anything new remains to be said on globalization. Reading Rüdiger Safranski's account of the issue, it becomes immediately obvious, maybe surprisingly, that the answer can be highly affirmative."
Peter Wagner, European University Institute and University of Warwick

About this edition

• Publisher: Polity
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0745633897
• ISBN 13: 9780745633893
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 100