Emergencies and Politics
A Sober Hobbesian Approach

In this book Tom Sorell argues that emergencies can justify types of action that would normally be regarded as wrong.

Tom Sorell (Author)

9781107044319, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 September 2013

234 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 1.7 cm, 0.47 kg

'Tom Sorell's Emergencies and Politics is 'not a book about Hobbes,' as the author points out. However, it is an outstanding example of how Hobbes's thought could be engaged in view of important present-day concerns, and therefore should be recommended to a Hobbesian audience. There is a particularly strong case for the relevance of Hobbes's ideas with regard to ethical and political questions raised by emergencies.' Maximilian Jaede, Hobbes Studies

In this book Tom Sorell argues that emergencies can justify types of action that would normally be regarded as wrong. Beginning with the ethics of emergencies facing individuals, he explores the range of effective and legitimate private emergency response and its relation to public institutions, such as national governments. He develops a theory of the response of governments to public emergencies which indicates the possibility of a democratic politics that is liberal but that takes seriously threats to life and limb from public disorder, crime or terrorism. Informed by Hobbes, Schmitt and Walzer, but substantially different from them, the book widens the justification for recourse to normally forbidden measures, without resorting to illiberal politics. This book will interest students of politics, philosophy, international relations and law.

1. Private emergencies and institutions
2. Public emergencies, black holes and sober Hobbesianism
3. Liberalism with Hobbesian sobriety
4. Can liberal emergency-response address threats to peoples and civilizations?
5. Liberalism and emergency-response: national community
6. Legislating for emergencies and legislating in emergencies
7. International security, human security and emergency
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Comparative politics [JPB], Political science & theory [JPA], Politics & government [JP], Sociology [JHB], Social & political philosophy [HPS]