Browsing by Subject "Republicanism"
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Item Open Access Cocks on Dunghills-Wollstonecraft and gouges on the women's revolution(De Gruyter Open Ltd, 2022-09-26) Bergès, Sandrine; Coffee, AlanWhile many historians and philosophers have sought to understand the 'failure' of the French Revolution to thrive and to avoid senseless violence, very few have referred to the works of two women philosophers who diagnosed the problems as they were happening. This essay looks at how Mary Wollstonecraft and Olympe de Gouges theorised the new tyranny that grew out of the French Revolution, that of 'petty tyrants' who found themselves like 'cocks on a dunghill' able to wield a new power over those less fortunate than themselves. Both offer diagnoses and prognoses that revolve around education. Wollstonecraft argues that a revolution that is not backed by a previous education of the people is bound to result in chaos and violence. Such education, however, must be slow, and it necessitates the reform of the institutions that most shape the public's character. A revolution, perforce, is fast, and it often takes several years, or even generations before the spirit of the reforms finds itself implemented into new institutions. Olympe de Gouges shares Wollstonecraft's worry and she observes that the men who were once dominated quickly become tyrants themselves unless their moral character is already virtuous. But the state of being dominated leaves little room for virtue; hence, newly minted citizens need to be educated in order not to replicate the reign of tyranny onto other. Gouges suggests that the answer to the difficulty she and Wollstonecraft highlighted was to educate the people where they could be found: on the streets, or, where they could easily and willingly be gathered: in theatres. By helping organise revolutionary festivals, highlighting the ways in which citizens could be virtuous, and writing plays to awaken their virtue, and proposing a reform of the theatre, so that the production of such plays would be possible, Gouges offered a plan for the civic education of French citizens in the immediate aftermaths of the Revolution. Unfortunately, the chaos she and Wollstonecraft had sought to remedy, led by the cocks or petty tyrants, ensured that they were unable to see through their plans, with Wollstonecraft having to leave Paris and Gouges being sent to the guillotine. © 2022 the author(s), published by De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston.Item Restricted Item Open Access The descent of women to the power of domesticity: From margaret cavendish to laura ingalls wilder(Sage Publications, Inc., 2021-08-06) Bergès, SandrineIs the virtue of domesticity a way for women to access civic power or is it a slippery slope to dependence and female subservience? Here I look at a number of philosophical responses to domesticity and trace a historical path from Aristotle to the 19th century Cult of Domesticity. Central to the Cult was the idea that women’s power was better used in the home, keeping everybody safe, alive, and virtuous. While this attitude seems to us very conservative, I want to argue that it has its roots in the republican thought of eighteenth-century France. I will show how the status of women before the French Revolutions did not allow even for power exercised in the home, and how the advent of republican ideals in France offered women non-negligible power despite their not having a right to vote.Item Open Access Hobbes on Civic Liberty and the rule of Law(Cambridge University Press, 2012) Vinx, Lars; Dyzenhaus, D.; Poole, T.Item Open Access Is motherhood compatible with political participation? Sophie de Grouchy's care-based republicanism(Springer Netherlands, 2014) Berges, S.Motherhood, as it is practiced, constitutes an obstacle to gender equality in political participation. Several options are available as a potential solution to this problem. One is to advice women not to become mothers, or if they do, to devote less time and energy to caring for their children. However this will have negative repercussions for those who need to be cared for, whether children, sick people or the elderly. A second solution is to reject the view that political participation is an important or necessary part of human flourishing, and allow that those who engage in caring activities can live good lives without having a say in how they are ruled. This has negative consequences for the carers who find themselves in a position, if not of direct oppression, of being dominated, and therefore susceptible of being oppressed. The solution I propose, inspired by the writings of Sophie de Grouchy, is that we look for a form of republicanism that regards caring activities as a form of political participation.Item Open Access Military in modern republican theory(2016-05) Karabulut, Ali NedimThis thesis examines the status of the military in modern normative republican theory. In classical republicanism there is a strong relation between the republic and the military, which was envisaged to perform three critical internal functions in a republic: preventing executive tyranny, promoting civic virtue and providing the best civic engagement for the citizens that produces common good. However, a study of modern republicanism reveals a diminishing emphasis on the role of military. Some prominent advocates of contemporary republican theory have little or no role for it in their conceptualization, while there are still some advocates who believe either military itself or its civic alternatives can and should contribute to effective functioning of the republican system. I argue that military may not be central as it was before, but if a modern state needs to keep military, it can still contribute to motivational and institutional challenges of republicanism. These contributions will only be possible if military can be established as a democratically-controlled institution that will not abuse its power to de-politicize the political realm and thwart citizens’ capacity for self-rule. In addition, I also argue that removing the central concept of citizen-army from republican theory will create inconsistency unless same functions are performed by other means.Item Open Access The republican character of Islamism in Turkey from the perspective of 'the political'(1998) Çınar, MenderesThis dissertation is an exploratory research that critically reviews the existing approaches to Islamism so as to evaluate their suitability and effectiveness and to suggest an altemative framework to approach Islamism. Islamism is primarily a political movement about the fundamentals of the society rather than a religious movement. Studying Islamismin terms of its religiosity, in terms of its modernity and in terms of its different civilizational outlook is not explanatory as far as its political aspects are concemed. Therefore, Islamism could be better comprehended if studied on political grounds and in relation to the context within which it emerges. This dissertation considers Islamism not in terms of its substance, which is Islamisation, but in terms of its alternative structuration of politics and in terms of its vision of state society relationship. The definition of concept of "the political" is central part of the alternative framework. A structuration of political sphere is determined by the underlying mode of societal integration. Although mixtures are possible, there are basically two modes of integration: liberal and republican. When viewed from this perspective it becomes apparent that the National Outlook Movement' s Islamİst opposition to Kemalist Westernization is accompanied by a gramınatical similarity, i.e. the structuration of the legitimate sphere of politics. Despite their substantive differences, both Kemalism and Islamism resemble each other grammatically and, as far as their structuration(s) of politics concerned, belong to the same family of republicanism.Item Open Access Wet-Nursing and political participation(Oxford Scholarship Online, 2016) Berges, Sandrine; Berges, Sandrine; Coffee, A. M. S. J.Caring duties, which fall particularly to women, are not always compatible with the degree of public life that republican citizenship requires. This is sometimes held as a feminist objection to republicanism. This chapter addresses this objection by focusing on the case of the mothering of infants and wet-nursing in the writings of Wollstonecraft and de Grouchy, two feminist writers of the Enlightenment period. It argues that both writers believe that mothering is central to the development of republican values and that compassion enables the growth of republican sentiments. But for Wollstonecraft this is a double-edged sword. For women to earn the status of citizens they must, if they are mothers, perform all duties attending to motherhood, including breastfeeding their children. Unfortunately, it is those duties that conflict with republican citizenship. A comparison with de Grouchy’s own views on wet-nursing will point to a possible solution.