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120Democracy and socialism: Philosophical aporiaePhilosophy and Social Criticism 16 (4): 269-289. 1990.
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64Two years ago, the distribution of the world’s people reached the point at which over half now live in cities. Some social scientists and urban planners (but few political leaders other than those of large municipalities) had seen this change coming. With one group of exceptions, philosophers have paid less attention to the subject. I would like to advance some ideas about how to think philosophically about cities, drawing upon North American and European thinkers and traditions
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59when the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives published an ambitious report, The Rich and the Rest of Us by Armine Yalnizyan, reactions from the political right quickly followed. This was, of course, to be expected. Her research describes galloping disparities of income among Canadians from 1976, where after-tax median income of the top 10% of families was 31 times higher than that of the bottom 10%, to 2004 when it was 82 times higher. An even more dramatic case could be made by comparing we…Read more
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59Theories of Democracy: A Critical IntroductionRoutledge. 2001.This is the first book to be published in this exciting new series on political philosophy. Cunningham provides a critical and clear introduction to the main contemporary approaches to democracy: participatory democracy, classic and radical pluralism, deliberative democracy, catallaxy, and others. Also discussed are theorists in the background of current democratic thought, such as Tocqueville, Mill, and Rousseau. The book includes applications of democratic theories including an extended discus…Read more
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54The Conflicting Truths of Religion and DemocracySocial Philosophy Today 21 65-80. 2005.This paper suggests that the truths of religion and democracy are, respectively, theocracy and moral relativism. Religion tends toward theocracy, the thesis that religiously influenced political norms should trump secular norms. Democracy tends toward moral relativism, the thesis that society lacks agreed upon standards by which the varying and conflicting moral views therein may be adjudicated. The conflict between religion and democracy is thus unavoidable: theocracy insists that any conflict …Read more
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47More on understanding in the social sciencesInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 10 (1-4): 321-326. 1967.A central mistake in Rolf Gruner's recent article on understanding in the socia sciences in ferreted out, and consideration of it is used both to analyse Gruner's interpretation of understanding and to sketch a more adequate interpretation. The mistake is in distinguishing meanings and facts. The analysis suggests that Gruner was forced to see understanding both as a special kind of explanation and at the same time as no explanation. The sketch offers a distinction of three senses of ?understand…Read more
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43Democratic Theory and SocialismCambridge University Press. 1987.This book is an important contribution to the theory of democracy and socialism. The underlying question it poses is: how, if at all, can one have both socialism and democracy? In posing an answer to this question, Professor Cunningham addresses the following topics: the definition of democracy and whether socialism is necessary to its progress: the socialist retrieval of liberal democracy associated with the work of C. B. Macpherson: the political consciousness that Gramsci placed at the center…Read more
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42Historical-Critical Dictionary of Marxism (review)Radical Philosophy Review of Books 14 (14): 80-82. 1996.
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41The university and social justiceJournal of Academic Ethics 5 (2-4): 153-162. 2007.Considerations of social justice pertain to universities with respect to reserved spaces for applicants from disadvantaged groups, targeted hiring, differential student fees or faculty workloads and salaries, and similarly contested matters. This paper displaces debates over what constitutes just allocation of university resources from those over theories of justice in general to those about alternative visions of the proper goal of universities. To this end, educational and democratic theories …Read more
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29Tout le mal vient de l'inégalité…Dialogue 37 (4): 669-. 1998.In memory of Professor Louise Marcil, from the University of Montreal, who died prematurely in April 1995, this special issue of Dialogue is dedicated to Equality. In addition to presenting the various contributions, the Introduction traces the main strands of Louise Marcil's work on equality. The impressive corpus of her writings on the subject is characterized throughout by sensitivity to the historical and conceptual complexity of egalitarian theories and policies and by a depth of scholarshi…Read more
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24Critical Notice of Frank Cunningham, Objectivity in Social Science (review)Canadian Journal of Philosophy 5 (2): 295-298. 1975.
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22Theories of Democracy: A Critical IntroductionRoutledge. 2001.a critical introduction Frank Cunningham. economic 200; and globality/ globalism 200, 204 group loyalties 62-3 group representation 95-100; challenges 97-100; modes 97; types 96 guild socialism 137 hegemony 190-1,213 Hobbesist 73, ...
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20Practice and Some Muddles about the Methodology of Historical MaterialismCanadian Journal of Philosophy 3 (2). 1973.Along with the rest of his Critique de Ia Raison Dialectique, which it introduces, the “Question de Méthode” takes an important place in the development of Jean-Paul Sartre's philosophical and political thought. However, the Search is also a challenge to Marxists either to defend or abandon certain of their views, and as such I think it raises some crucial issues. It is the purpose of this essay not to produce a systematic critique of Sartre's influential work, but rather to explore and sharpen …Read more
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20Globalization and Developmental DemocracyEthical Perspectives 15 (4): 487-505. 2008.Frank Cunningham discusses the idea that there is no universal form of democracy, in his contribution on MacPherson, “Globalization and developmental democracy”. Working at a time in which colonial attitudes had not yet been radically questioned, MacPherson analyzed the democratic potential of peoples that were, in Western eyes, still deemed too immature for self-government. MacPherson’s theoretical framework was particularly suited to such an endeavour, because his definition of democracy did n…Read more
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19Book Reviews : Knowledge and Society: An Introduction to the Philosophy of the Social Sci ences. By ARNOLD B. LEVISON. Toronto: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1974. Pp. 188. $5.45 (review)Philosophy of the Social Sciences 6 (3): 274-276. 1976.
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18Essence and Existence in Thomism: A Mental Vs. the "real Distinction?"University Press of Amer. 1988.
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16The Conflicting Truths of Religion and DemocracySocial Philosophy Today 21 65-80. 2005.This paper suggests that the truths of religion and democracy are, respectively, theocracy and moral relativism. Religion tends toward theocracy, the thesis that religiously influenced political norms should trump secular norms. Democracy tends toward moral relativism, the thesis that society lacks agreed upon standards by which the varying and conflicting moral views therein may be adjudicated. The conflict between religion and democracy is thus unavoidable: theocracy insists that any conflict …Read more
Areas of Specialization
Social and Political Philosophy |