On Common Interests - by John Ryder (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book offers a political philosophy that is grounded in the overlapping sets of interests that people share, interests that provide social cohesion and define our individual aspirations and social activities.

Book Synopsis

This book develops an original theory that grounds political principles and practices in common interests among citizens and residents of a country. This theory differs from most prevalent political philosophies in that they focus on common ideas which emphasize how we might think rather than how we actually live, or on competing or conflicting interests for the purpose of balancing or advancing one set of interests over another. On Common Interests offers principles, possible structures, and practices that enable government to help us advance the interests we share. As a political philosophy, it values cooperation and collaboration over conflict and competition.

Review Quotes

Ryder develops a detailed and tightly reasoned pragmatic alternative to political philosophies constructed on left/right/center and liberal/anti-liberal assumptions. His innovative approach is pluralistic and ecumenical. He urges consensus-building motivated not by what people think or believe, but by how their experiences shape their lives as individuals and members of communities.

This is a radical exercise of the political imagination, in the sense that the author at every turn attempts to get to the root of the matter, digging deeper than any other contemporary theorist is disposed to do. John Ryder is unafraid to draw out disconcertingly novel implications from his historical observations and theoretical conclusions, to entertain utterly unorthodox possibilities. He does so in an historically informed, philosophically rigorous, and rhetorically engaging manner. This is a very serious and, in the best sense, disturbing work. His position does not neatly fit into any traditional category-so much the worse for those categories, so much to the credit of this author.

About the Author

John Ryder has been a professor of philosophy and a senior administrator at several universities in the United States and abroad. He is the author or editor of over one hundred publications, as well as a former president of the Alliance of Universities for Democracy, and co-founder of the Central European Pragmatist Forum.