Political Encounters: A Hermeneutic Inquiry into the Situation of Political Obligation

CONTENTS

1.      Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1.Political Obligation

1.2.The Modern State

1.3.Hermeneutics

1.4.Plan of this Book

2.      Chapter 2: The 'Rational Individual'- Rational Paradigms of Political Obligation

2.1  Rationalism and Politics

2.2  Political Obligation and Rationalism

2.3  The Strengths and the Limitations of a Normative Rational Paradigm

2.4  Rationalism and Obligation in the Scottish Legal System

3.      Chapter 3: The Importance of Tradition and Culture- Context-based Paradigms of Political Obligation

3.2 Associative Political Obligation- A Context-based Approach

3.3. Confucian Communitarianism- The Context-based Approach in China

3.4 Traditional Culture, Obligation, and the Chinese State

4.      Chapter Four: The Oppressor and the Oppressed- Marxist and Other Critical Paradigms of Political Obligation

4.1 The Marxist Critique of Political Obligation

4.2 Beyond Class- A Gender Based Criticism of Obligation

4.3 The Problem of False Consciousness and the Limits of the Critical Approach

4.4. Gender and Obligation in the USSR

5.      Chapter Five: Inside the Situation- Introducing the Hermeneutic Concept of Encounter

5.1 The Encounter

5.2 Horizon

5.3 Narrative

6.1 Encounter, Friendship, and Obligation

6.2 The Encounter with the 'the Enemy'

6.3 The Encounter and Political Obligation

6.4 The Encounter as a Hermeneutic Tool for Investigating Situations of Political Obligation

7.      Chapter Seven: Political Obligation and the Post-truth Era- Limitation, Critique, and a Defense of the Approach through the Encounter

7.1 The Specter of Post-truth

7.2 The Hermeneutic Approach through the Encounter- A Post-truth Theory?

7.3 The Encounter and Possible Future Normative Assessment

Chapter Eight: Conclusion