Integrity: The Rise of a Distinctive Western Idea and Its Destiny

Albrow, Martin

  • 出版商: Polity
  • 出版日期: 2025-02-03
  • 售價: $1,100
  • 貴賓價: 9.5$1,045
  • 語言: 英文
  • 頁數: 200
  • 裝訂: Hardcover - also called cloth, retail trade, or trade
  • ISBN: 1509559868
  • ISBN-13: 9781509559862
  • 尚未上市,無法訂購

相關主題

商品描述

Public life is dominated from time to time by media storms around integrity. The behaviour of elected politicians like Donald Trump and Boris Johnson has led many to decry the deterioration in standards and the lack of integrity in public life. But what is integrity, and where does our concern with integrity in public life come from?

In this book Martin Albrow argues that integrity has been an essential component of the rise of the West and a key feature that distinguishes the West from other civilizations. He traces the idea of integrity back to its roots in Ancient Greece and Rome, where philosophical debates gave us the special meaning of integrity: the idea that the unity of any entity, human beings included, depends on the adherence to rules outside of it. He then follows the story of integrity through the mediaeval Christian period up to the present day.

By the time we reach the twenty-first century, integrity has become a free-floating signifier that attaches to anything and everything. The result is a constant questioning of integrity without conclusive answers. We have now reached the point, argues Albrow, where the West needs to relinquish its fond belief in its singularity and strive with the rest of the world to create an order where honesty, trust and reliability in our relationships with others, friends and strangers, personal or corporate, are paramount.

This highly original account of an idea that lies at the heart of Western culture will be of interest to anyone concerned about the state and future of our public life.

商品描述(中文翻譯)

公共生活不時受到媒體風暴所主導,圍繞著誠信的議題。像唐納德·特朗普和鮑里斯·約翰遜這樣的當選政治家的行為,引起了許多人對公共生活標準的惡化和誠信缺乏的譴責。但是,什麼是誠信,以及我們對公共生活中誠信的關注從何而來?

在這本書中,馬丁·奧爾布羅(Martin Albrow)認為,誠信一直是西方崛起的重要組成部分,也是區別西方與其他文明的關鍵特徵。他追溯了誠信的概念源於古希臘和古羅馬,那裡的哲學辯論賦予了誠信特殊的意義:任何實體的統一,包括人類在內,都取決於對其外部規則的遵守。然後,他將誠信的故事延續到中世紀基督教時期,直至今天。

到了21世紀,誠信已成為一個自由漂浮的符號,可以附著在任何事物上。結果是對誠信的不斷質疑,卻沒有結論性的答案。奧爾布羅爾爾認為,我們現在已經到達了一個時刻,西方需要放棄對其獨特性的深信,與世界其他地區一起努力創造一個以誠實、信任和可靠性為首要的秩序,無論是在與他人、朋友和陌生人、個人或企業的關係中。

這本關於一個深植於西方文化核心的概念的高度原創描述,將對所有關心我們公共生活狀態和未來的人感興趣。

作者簡介

Martin Albrow has held numerous professorships and fellowships in the UK, Europe, the US and China and is the author of The Global Age.

作者簡介(中文翻譯)

Martin Albrow在英國、歐洲、美國和中國擔任過多個教授職位和研究員職位,並且是《The Global Age》一書的作者。