Synopses & Reviews
'There is something absolute about the letters between you & me; … The letter is a form of communion of the soul-spirit – … one that is faded & yet unimpeded, complete’, wrote Martin Heidegger to his fiancée Elfride Petri shortly before their wedding. In the course of a marriage that lasted almost sixty years Martin and Elfride were often apart, and the letter thus remained a vital means of communication right through to the final years.
The letters he sent her are snapshots of the ups and downs, the crises and everyday minutiae from Heidegger’s life: their engagement, the building of the Cabin at Todtnauberg, the part he played in the two world wars, the difficulties of his early professional career, their financial problems, his dealings with women, and his constant concern with expounding his ideas.
Apart from three letters now in the hands of the German Literature Archive in Marbach, Elfride Heidegger kept all of the countless letters and cards from her husband locked away in a wooden chest. After reading them one final time, in 1977 she gave the key to this chest to her granddaughter Gertrud Heidegger on condition that she should not open it until after Elfride’s death. After years spent deciphering, transcribing and ordering the letters with the help of her father and her uncle, Gertrud Heidegger has here made a selection of them available to the public and added a commentary that provides relevant background material.
This selection from the many letters written by Martin Heidegger to his wife provides an invaluable insight into their life together, their friendships and relationships, and sheds fresh light on the ideas and beliefs of one of the twentieth century’s greatest philosophers.
Review
"One of the most intellectually rigorous and empirically well-informed works of political philosophy yet written on world poverty. (A) brilliant work."
James Grant, Australian Journal of Political Science"A triumph of cosmopolitan argumentation for a global system of justice. This book has been, and will remain, a standard for all students of poverty and human rights."
Human Rights Review
"If only everyone living in affluent nations were to read World Poverty and Human Rights! Pogge's combination of rigorous moral argument and judicious use of the relevant facts compels us to acknowledge that the existing global economic order is ethically indefensible. A wonderful book that could do an immense amount of good."
Peter Singer
"One of the very best books known to me on global inequality, the most important moral problem facing the world today. Pogge shows convincingly how we, and the institutions we support, can best try to make the present world order less unjust. These proposals combine, in a remarkable way, moral depth, clear thinking, inventiveness, and practical good sense."
Derek Parfit, All Souls College, Oxford
"Pogge's gift is to recognize as imaginary the boundaries between economics and ethics. A striking example is the historically derived and currently dysfunctional way we apply patents for medicines. With simplicity and clarity, Pogge offers an analysis without villains, a remedy without losers and a practical path to fundamental reform."
Carl Nathan, Cornell University
Review
"The letters reveal Heidegger as a whole in an unprecedented fashion, but also evoke the character and qualities of his wife."
The Scientific and Medical Network“Heidegger’s letters to his wife are a revelation. They offer privileged access to the innermost reaches of Heidegger’s thought. Moreover, here, perhaps for the first time, Heidegger the fallible individual is fully on display. These fascinating letters reveal Heidegger’s exalted sense of the world-historical mission of philosophy, as well as his own immodest estimation of his standing. This rich correspondence should be required reading for anyone interested in the vital intersection between biography and the history of ideas.”
Richard Wolin, City University of New York
“Can a philosopher’s life illuminate his thinking? Heidegger is not encouraging, writing of Aristotle: ‘He was born, worked, and died.’ Yet in these letters to Elfride, his thinking, tribulations and passions bleed together, exploding any such parsimony. They bear intimate witness to everyday life chez Heidegger, and offer a riveting glimpse of an often unequal struggle with his wife over the meaning of marriage, love and truth.”
David Wood, Vanderbilt University
Synopsis
Some 2.5 billion human beings live in severe poverty, deprived of such essentials as adequate nutrition, safe drinking water, basic sanitation, adequate shelter, literacy, and basic health care. One third of all human deaths are from poverty-related causes: 18 million annually, including over 10 million children under five.
However huge in human terms, the world poverty problem is tiny economically. Just 1 percent of the national incomes of the high-income countries would suffice to end severe poverty worldwide. Yet, these countries, unwilling to bear an opportunity cost of this magnitude, continue to impose a grievously unjust global institutional order that foreseeably and avoidably perpetuates the catastrophe. Most citizens of affluent countries believe that we are doing nothing wrong.
Thomas Pogge seeks to explain how this belief is sustained. He analyses how our moral and economic theorizing and our global economic order have adapted to make us appear disconnected from massive poverty abroad. Dispelling the illusion, he also offers a modest, widely sharable standard of global economic justice and makes detailed, realistic proposals toward fulfilling it.
Thoroughly updated, the second edition of this classic book incorporates responses to critics and a new chapter introducing Pogge's current work on pharmaceutical patent reform.
Synopsis
Thomas Pogge is Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale University, Professorial Fellow in the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the Australian National University, Research Director in the Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature at the University of Oslo, and Adjunct Professor in the Centre for Professional Ethics at the University of Central Lancashire.
About the Author
Martin Heidegger
Translated by Rupert Glasgow
Table of Contents
Introduction.
I Some Cautions About Our Moral Judgements.
II Four Easy Reasons to Ignore World Poverty.
III Sophisticated Defenses of our acquiescence in world poverty.
IV Does Our New Global Economic Order Really Not Harm the Poor?.
V Responsibilities and Reforms.
Chapter 1: Human Flourishing and Universal Justice.
1. 0 Introduction.
1. 1 Social Justice.
1. 2 Paternalism.
1. 3 Justice in First Approximation.
1. 4 Essential Refinements.
1. 5 Human Rights.
1. 6 Specification of Human Rights and Responsibilities for their Realization.
1. 7 Conclusion.
Chapter 2: How Should Human Rights be Conceived?.
2. 0 Introduction.
2. 1 From Natural Law to Rights.
2. 2 From Natural Rights to Human Rights.
2. 3 Official Disrespect.
2. 4 The Libertarian Critique of Social and Economic Rights.
2. 5 The Critique of Social and Economic Rights as 'Manifesto Rights'.
2. 6 Disputes about Kinds of Human Rights.
Chapter 3: Loopholes in Moralities.
3. 0 Introduction.
3. 1 Types of Incentives.
3. 2 Loopholes.
3. 3 Social Arrangements.
3. 4 Case 1: The Converted Apartment Building.
3. 5 Case 2: The Homelands Policy of White South Africa.
3. 6 An Objection.
3. 7 Strengthening.
3. 8 Fictional Histories.
3. 9 Puzzles of Equivalence.
3. 10 Conclusion.
Chapter 4: Moral Universalism and Global Economic Justice.
4. 0 Introduction.
4. 1 Moral Universalism.
4. 2 Our Moral Assessment of National and Global Economic Orders.
4. 3 Some Factual Background about the Global Economic Order.
4. 3. 1 The Extent of World Poverty.
4. 3. 2 The Extent of Global Inequality.
4. 3. 3 Trends in World Poverty and Inequality.
4. 4 Conceptions of National and Global Economic Justice Contrasted.
4. 5 Moral Universalism and David Miller’s Contextualism.
4. 6 Contextualist Moral Universalism and John Rawls’s Moral Conception.
4. 7 Rationalizing Divergent Moral Conceptions Through a Double Standard.
4. 8 Rationalizing Divergent Moral Conceptions Without a Double Standard.
4. 9 The Causal Role of Global Institutions in the Persistence of Severe Poverty.
4. 10 Conclusion.
Chapter 5: The Bounds of Nationalism.
5. 0 Introduction.
5. 1 Common Nationalism – Priority for the Interests of Compatriots.
5. 2 Lofty Nationalism – The Justice-for-Compatriots Priority.
5. 3 Explanatory Nationalism – The Deep Significance of National Borders.
5. 4 Conclusion.
Chapter 6: Achieving Democracy.
6. 0 Introduction.
6. 1 The Structure of the Problem Faced by Fledgling Democracies.
6. 2 Reducing the Expected Rewards of Coups d'Etat.
6. 3 Undermining the Borrowing Privilege of Authoritarian Predators.
6. 3. 1 The Criterial Problem.
6. 3. 2 The Tit-For-Tat Problem.
6. 3. 3 The Establishment Problem.
6. 3. 4 Synthesis.
6. 4 Undermining the Resource Privilege of Authoritarian Predators.
6. 5 Conclusion.
Chapter 7: Cosmopolitanism and Sovereignty.
7. 0 Introduction.
7. 1 Institutional Cosmopolitanism Based on Human Rights.
7. 2 The Idea of State Sovereignty.
7. 3 Some Main Reasons for a Vertical Dispersal of Sovereignty.
7. 3. 1 Peace and Security.
7. 3. 2 Reducing Oppression.
7. 3. 3 Global Economic Justice.
7. 3. 4 Ecology/Democracy.
7. 4 The Shaping and Reshaping of Political Units.
7. 5 Conclusion.
Chapter 8: Eradicating Systemic Poverty: Brief for a Global Resources Dividend.
8. 0 Introduction.
8. 1 Radical Inequality and Our Responsibility.
8. 2 Three Grounds of Injustice.
8. 2. 1 The Effects of Shared Social Institutions.
8. 2. 2 Uncompensated Exclusion from the Use of Natural Resources.
8. 2. 3 The Effects of a Common and Violent History.
8. 3 A Moderate Proposal.
8. 4 The Moral Argument for the Proposed Reform.
8. 5 Is the Reform Proposal Realistic?.
8. 6 Conclusion.
Chapter 9: Pharmaceutical Innovation: Must We Exclude the Poor? .
9.0 Introduction.
9.1 The TRIPS Agreement and its aftermath.
9.2 The argument from beneficial consequences.
9.3 Toward a better way of stimulating research and development of essential medicines.
9.4 Differential pricing.
9.5 The public-good strategy for extending access to essential medicines.
9.6 A full-pull plan for the provision of pharmaceuticals.
9.7 Specifying and implementing the basic full-pull idea.
9.8 Justifying the plan to affluent citizens and their representatives.
Last Words.
Notes.
Bibliography.
Index