Pricing Lives

The Political Art of Measurement
Erscheinungsjahr 2023
ISBN: 978-0-19-289055-9
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 312 Seiten, Format (B × H): 163 mm x 231 mm, Gewicht: 635 g

This book discusses how human lives are equated with the material, and argues that pricing lives lies at the core of the political; in fact, as in Plato or Hobbes, and in the Weberian ethics of responsibility, measurement is considered to be one of its central features. Ariel Colonomos argues that this measure relies primarily on human lives and interests, and that the material equivalence to lives is twofold. The equivalence is a double equation, as we pay for lives and we pay with lives. This double equation constitutes the measurement upon which the political equilibrium of a society depends and is thus a key constitutive part of the political. The book adopts two approaches, both with an interdisciplinary perspective: one explanatory and the other normative. First, it explains the nexus between existential goods and material goods, drawing on a detailed analysis of several case studies from contemporary politics, both domestic and international. Second, it discusses normatively the material valuation of human lives and the human value of material goods. Value attribution and the question of the material equivalent to lives are of relevance not only for political theory and philosophy, but also for sociology, history, international relations, and legal studies.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Colonomos, Ariel

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Staatsbürgerkunde, Staatsbürgerschaft, Zivilgesellschaft
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Introduction: The lives-interests nexus

- Part I. Pricing Lives before the State: Some Political Lessons from Shakespeare

- 1: The many merchants of Venice

- 2: Henry V: An all-too-human gambler

- Part II. The Calculating State: Hobbes's Hidden Pendulum

- 3: The challenge of measuring the measures: Proportionality

- 4: The challenge of weighing up the value of hostages

- 5: The challenge of deciding upon reparations

- 6: The challenge of pricing pandemics

- Part III. Patriarchalism and Philanthropism

- 7: A political theory of hostage-taking: Patriarchalism

- 8: A political theory of the victim: Philanthropism

- Part IV. Pricing Distant Lives

- 9: Lest we forget the future: The fallacy of temporal discounting

- 10: Out of sight, out of mind?

- Conclusion: Knowing who we are. Pricing lives and taking responsibility

Über Autor(innen)

Ariel Colonomos is Research Professor at CNRS and Sciences Po in Paris where he is affiliated with CERI. He has taught in the Political Science department at Columbia and at SIPA, and has held numerous visiting positions in the US. His work focuses on international relations and political theory, and his recent works include Moralizing International Relations (Palgrave, 2008), The Gamble of War (Palgrave, 2013), and Selling the Future—The Perils of Predicting Global Politics (Hurst/OUP, 2016), which received the ISA Ethics section book award.