Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ttngx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-06T17:48:33.931Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Was C.B. Macpherson a Crypto Philosopher?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2016

Frank Cunningham
Frank Cunningham*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto and Simon Fraser University
*
Urban Studies ProgramSimon Fraser University515 W. Hastings St, Unit 2100 Vancouver, B.C. V6B 5K3, email: frankcunningham55@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Phillip Hansen's book, Reconsidering C.B. Macpherson: From Possessive Individualism to Democratic Theory and Beyond (2015) arrives when revival of the thought of one of Canada's most original and influential political theorists is to be welcomed. Macpherson's critiques of market-dominated society and culture are even more apt in an era of free trade and neo-liberalism than in his own times. More than a summary of Macpherson's views, Hansen's book offers an original reading of him as a philosopher. This review raises questions about the accuracy and usefulness of such a reading.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , September 2016 , pp. 559 - 566
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Berlin, Isaiah. 1971. Letter to Macpherson, May 25. University of Toronto Archives, Box 013, 05.Google Scholar
Hansen, Phillip. 2015. Reconsidering C.B. Macpherson: From Possessive Individualism to Democratic Theory and Beyond. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kontos, Alkis. 1979. “Through a Glass Darkly.” Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory 3:1, 25–45.Google Scholar
Macpherson, C.B. 1962. The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Reissued with an introduction by Frank Cunningham. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Macpherson, C.B. 1973. Democratic Theory: Essays in Retrieval. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Reissued with an introduction by Frank Cunningham. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Macpherson, C.B. 1977a. “Needs and Wants: an Ontological or Historical Problem? In Human Needs and Politics, ed. Fitzgerald, Ross. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Macpherson, C.B. 1977b. The Life and Times of Liberal Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Reissued with an introduction by Frank Cunningham. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Macpherson, C.B. 1979. “Second and Third Thoughts on Needs and Wants.” Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory 3:1, 46–49.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl and Engels, Frederick. 1964 (1845–46). The German Ideology. New York: Progress Publishers.Google Scholar
Meynell, Robert. 2011. Canadian Idealism and the Philosophy of Freedom: C.B. Macpherson, George Grant, and Charles Taylor. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar