Philip Green (author)

Last updated
Philip Green
Philip Green Portrait.jpg
Green in 2014
Born (1932-10-06) October 6, 1932 (age 91)
EraContemporary
RegionWestern democracies
School Critical Theory
Main interests
democratic theory, American politics, feminism, mass media, modern political thought

Philip Green (born October 6, 1932) is an American political theorist and Sophia Smith Professor Emeritus of Smith College in Northampton, MA. [1] An outspoken public intellectual, he is best known for his critiques of American liberal pluralism, beginning with a critique of American Cold War strategic policy based on massive nuclear deterrence and first-strike capability, to numerous recent writings about the retreat of representative democracy in the United States. His recent book, American Democracy: Selected Essays on Theory, Practice and Critique (2014), [2] contains a compilation of many of those essays.

Contents

Education

Green attended Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, PA, graduating with a BA in History (Magna cum laude) in 1954. He received a Master's in Public Administration from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in Princeton, NY (1961), as well as a PhD in Politics at Princeton (1965). [3]

Career

Green taught political theory in the Government Department at Smith College from 1964–1998, [3] and was a visiting professor at the New School Graduate Center in New York from 2000–2009. [4] Early in his career, he taught at Princeton University and Haverford College.

In addition to his academic work, he has been a frequent contributor to public policy journals and magazines on topics ranging from affirmative action to anti-Semitism. [5] He has served on the editorial board of The Nation since 1978, [6] He was co-chair of the American Writer's Congress in New York in 1981, participated frequently in the Socialist Scholars Conference and its successor, the Left Forum. [7] He is a founding member of the Caucus for a New Political Science within the American Political Science Association (APSA), [8] and has appeared on numerous additional APSA panels.

Views

In his first book, Deadly Logic: The Theory of Nuclear Deterrence (1966), [9] Green criticized the allegedly scientific approach to the nuclear arms race advanced by strategic policy scholars and policymakers of the time. Their reliance on scientific solutions to nuclear escalation was, he argued, profoundly unscientific and inattentive to the deeper moral and political dimensions of the possibility of nuclear warfare. In a further development of that criticism in "Science, Government, and the Case of Rand: A Singular Pluralism" (World Politics 1968, reprinted in American Democracy, ch. 2), [2] :11–29 he pointed out that the story of the Rand Corporation's relationship to the theorists of nuclear deterrence gave lie to the conventional liberal pluralist notion that policy-setting in the U.S. was open to all would-be participants on an equal basis. The book and the essay were among the seminal critiques of liberal pluralism being developed out of the social and professional ferment of the 1960s. That essay was shortly followed by "I Have a Philosophy, You Have an Ideology: Is Social Criticism Possible?" (Massachusetts Review, 1971, reprinted in American Democracy, ch. 1), [2] :3–9 which argued that an appropriate respect for facts and reason distinguishes genuine philosophical or empirical argument from the illusions of ideological thinking.

Since that time, his writing has depended both politically and methodologically on these two foundations: the problems of liberal pluralism and the confusion of ideology with philosophical argument. His writing has ranged broadly across a variety of political issues, from advancing a feminist critique of mass culture (Cracks in the Pedestal: Ideology and Gender in Hollywood, 1998) [10] to arguing in favor of open borders (American Democracy, ch. 7). [2] :119–130 In particular, his essay, "A Few Kind Words for Liberalism", which initially appeared in The Nation in 1992 (reprinted in American Democracy, ch. 5) [2] :89–96 calls attention to the opaque but critical relationship between radicalism and liberalism. He argues that although liberals too often stop short of genuine change, leaving valuable reforms in the lurch, radicals need to recognize the Millian element in liberalism, the defense of individual rights, group rights and human rights. Thus, he asserts, liberalism and radicalism are inextricably linked, as each not only reveals itself but also challenges the shortcomings and hypocrisies of the other. He concludes that "[t]he task for radicals ... is ... always to point out how much remains to be done after the latest bout of liberal reform, but not to treat liberalism as their primary enemy. It is not classical liberalism but rather a compromised and half-hearted version of it that makes supine compromises with political power brokers or corporate moneybags". [2] :96

Throughout, as a theorist of democracy, Green has argued that the oligarchic and democratic elements of representative democracy are in constant tension (American Democracy, ch. 6); [2] that a truly representative and accountable government must have input from participants at all levels of public life (Retrieving Democracy, 1985); [11] and that representative democracy and modern capitalism—which deepens social inequalities and thus undermines the foundations of political equality—are fundamentally incompatible (Equality and Democracy, 1999). [12] Pointing out that vibrant democracy must be continuously open to mass protest movements (American Democracy, ch. 11), [2] :199–204 he has argued that familiar defenses of social inequality are profoundly ideological and can only be overcome not by philosophy but by collective action (American Democracy, ch. 4). [2] :61–88 In addition, he has pointed out that pro-democracy movements are repeatedly undermined by the increasing concentration of mass media (Primetime Politics, 2005), [13] and the unleashing of gigantic concentrations of wealth, as well as the tendency to institutionalize and contain democracy movements endemic in contemporary American politics (American Democracy, ch. 9). [2] :147–166 Finally, he asserts, true democracy is dependent upon a strong state for its protection, rather than the night-watchman state of free-market theorists (American Democracy, ch. 3). [2] :31–60

Honors and awards

Personal

Green is married to Dorothy Green, with whom he lives in New York City. He has two children, Laura Green, an English professor and Department Chair at Northeastern University, [17] and Robert Green, a film and internet producer. [18]

His memoir, Taking Sides: a Memoir in Stories, is a nostalgic and ironic account of his personal, political, and intellectual development. [19]

Selected works

Books

Edited books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Justice</span> Concept of moral fairness and administration of the law

Justice, in its broadest sense, is the concept that individuals are to be treated in a manner that is equitable and fair.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political movement</span> Movement to obtain a political goal

A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some theories of political movements are the political opportunity theory, which states that political movements stem from mere circumstances, and the resource mobilization theory which states that political movements result from strategic organization and relevant resources. Political movements are also related to political parties in the sense that they both aim to make an impact on the government and that several political parties have emerged from initial political movements. While political parties are engaged with a multitude of issues, political movements tend to focus on only one major issue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Rawls</span> American political philosopher (1921–2002)

John Bordley Rawls was an American moral, legal and political philosopher in the modern liberal tradition. Rawls has been described as one of the most influential political philosophers of the 20th century.

International relations theory is the study of international relations (IR) from a theoretical perspective. It seeks to explain behaviors and outcomes in international politics. The three most prominent schools of thought are realism, liberalism and constructivism. Whereas realism and liberalism make broad and specific predictions about international relations, constructivism and rational choice are methodological approaches that focus on certain types of social explanation for phenomena.

<i>A Theory of Justice</i> 1971 book by John Rawls

A Theory of Justice is a 1971 work of political philosophy and ethics by the philosopher John Rawls (1921–2002) in which the author attempts to provide a moral theory alternative to utilitarianism and that addresses the problem of distributive justice . The theory uses an updated form of Kantian philosophy and a variant form of conventional social contract theory. Rawls's theory of justice is fully a political theory of justice as opposed to other forms of justice discussed in other disciplines and contexts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Paul Wolff</span> American political philosopher

Robert Paul Wolff is an American political philosopher and professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Walzer</span> American philosopher (born 1935)

Michael Laban Walzer is an American political theorist and public intellectual. A professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey, he is editor emeritus of the left-wing magazine Dissent, which he has been affiliated with since his years as an undergraduate at Brandeis University, an advisory editor of the Jewish journal Fathom, and sits on the editorial board of the Jewish Review of Books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Dahl</span> American political scientist (1915–2014)

Robert Alan Dahl was an American political theorist and Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University.

In ethics, value pluralism is the idea that there are several values which may be equally correct and fundamental, and yet in conflict with each other. In addition, value-pluralism postulates that in many cases, such incompatible values may be incommensurable, in the sense that there is no objective ordering of them in terms of importance. Value pluralism is opposed to value monism, which states that all other forms of value can be commensured with or reduced to a single form.

William Eugene Connolly is an American political theorist known for his work on democracy, pluralism, capitalism and climate change. He is the Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. His 1974 work The Terms of Political Discourse won the 1999 Benjamin Lippincott Award.

Richard E. Flathman was the George Armstrong Kelly Professor of Political Science, emeritus, at Johns Hopkins University. He is known for having pioneered, with Brian Barry, David Braybrooke, Felix Oppenheim, and Abraham Kaplan, the application of analytic philosophy to political science. He was a leading advocate of liberalism and a champion of individuality. He defended a conception of social freedom according to which it is "negative, situated, and elemental."

Daniel Horace Deudney is an American political scientist and Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. His published work is mainly in the fields of international relations and political theory, with an emphasis on geopolitics and republicanism.

Josiah Ober is an American historian of ancient Greece and classical political theorist. He is Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis Professor in honor of Constantine Mitsotakis, and professor of classics and political science, at Stanford University. His teaching and research links ancient Greek history and philosophy with modern political theory and practice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herbert Gintis</span> American economist (1940–2023)

Herbert Gintis was an American economist, behavioral scientist, and educator known for his theoretical contributions to sociobiology, especially altruism, cooperation, epistemic game theory, gene-culture coevolution, efficiency wages, strong reciprocity, and human capital theory. Throughout his career, he worked extensively with economist Samuel Bowles. Their landmark book, Schooling in Capitalist America, had multiple editions in five languages since it was first published in 1976. Their book, A Cooperative Species: Human Reciprocity and its Evolution was published by Princeton University Press in 2011.

Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, right to private property and equality before the law. Liberals espouse various and often mutually warring views depending on their understanding of these principles but generally support private property, market economies, individual rights, liberal democracy, secularism, rule of law, economic and political freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion, Liberalism is frequently cited as the dominant ideology of modern history.

Liberalism, the belief in freedom, equality, democracy and human rights, is historically associated with thinkers such as John Locke and Montesquieu, and with constitutionally limiting the power of the monarch, affirming parliamentary supremacy, passing the Bill of Rights and establishing the principle of "consent of the governed". The 1776 Declaration of Independence of the United States founded the nascent republic on liberal principles without the encumbrance of hereditary aristocracy—the declaration stated that "all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among these life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". A few years later, the French Revolution overthrew the hereditary aristocracy, with the slogan "liberty, equality, fraternity" and was the first state in history to grant universal male suffrage. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, first codified in 1789 in France, is a foundational document of both liberalism and human rights, itself based on the U.S. Declaration of Independence written in 1776. The intellectual progress of the Enlightenment, which questioned old traditions about societies and governments, eventually coalesced into powerful revolutionary movements that toppled what the French called the Ancien Régime, the belief in absolute monarchy and established religion, especially in Europe, Latin America and North America.

Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre and broadly conform with progressivism. Ideologies of the centre-left include social democracy, social liberalism, and green politics. Ideas commonly supported by the centre-left include welfare capitalism, social justice, liberal internationalism, and multiculturalism. Economically, the centre-left supports a mixed economy in a democratic capitalist system, often including economic interventionism, progressive taxation, and the right to unionize. Centre-left politics are contrasted with far-left politics that reject capitalism or advocate revolution.

Liberal socialism is a political philosophy that incorporates liberal principles to socialism. This synthesis sees liberalism as the political theory that takes the inner freedom of the human spirit as a given and adopts liberty as the goal, means and rule of shared human life. Socialism is seen as the method to realize this recognition of liberty through political and economic autonomy and emancipation from the grip of pressing material necessity. Liberal socialism opposes abolishing certain components of capitalism and supports something approximating a mixed economy that includes both social ownership and private property in capital goods.

Jacob T. Levy is an American political theorist and Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory at McGill University. Levy is the Chair of the Department of Political Science at McGill, as well as the coordinator of McGill's Research Group on Constitutional Studies and the founding director of McGill's Yan P. Lin Centre for the Study of Freedom and Global Orders in the Ancient and Modern Worlds. Levy is also a Senior Fellow at the Niskanen Center and the Institute for Humane Studies. He is known for his expertise on multiculturalism, liberalism, and pluralism.

References

  1. "Smith College Catalog 2022–2023 (page 23)" (PDF). www.smith.edu. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 12, 2023. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Green, Philip (2014). American Democracy: Selected Essays on Theory, Practice, and Critique. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1057/9781137381552. ISBN   978-1-349-48022-7. OCLC   886381260. Several of the articles mentioned in the list of publications first appeared in the online journal Logos, to which he has been a frequent contributor.
  3. 1 2 Biographical information on file at Smith College, Northampton, MA.
  4. "Philip Green – Part-Time Faculty". www.newschool.edu. Archived from the original on 2011-03-15. Retrieved 2015-07-07.
  5. "'Anti-Semitism': Israel and the Left", appeared in The Nation, May 5, 2003, and is reprinted in Wrestling with Zion, ed. Tony Kushner and Alisa Solomon, Grove Press 2003, pp. 243–48.
  6. See, e.g., in The Nation: "Of Power and Morality", October 9, 1982, 321–324; "Two Cheers for the State", April 14, 1979, 398–401; "The Future of Equality", April 25, 1981., 459–63. "The Road to Socialism", November 17, 2008. The Nation.
  7. http://www.leftforum.org/about/history (no mention specifically of Phil; cited several times in conference proceedings)
  8. Green, Philip; Levinson, Sanford, eds. (1970). Power and Community: Dissenting Essays in Political Science . New York: Pantheon Books. p.  vii. ISBN   0394441176. OCLC   99885. [...] in 1967 when a group of dissident political scientists joined together to form The Caucus for a New Political Science [...] the two coeditors of and four additional contributors to this book have been on the executive committee of the Caucus [...]
  9. Green, Philip. (1966). Deadly Logic: The Theory of Deterrence. New York: Schocken Books.
  10. Green, Philip. (1997). Cracks in the Pedestal: Ideology and Gender in Hollywood. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.
  11. Green, Philip. (1985). Retrieving Democracy. Washington, DC: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
  12. Green, Philip. (1999). Equality and Democracy. New York: The New Press.
  13. Green, Philip. (2005). Primetime Politics: The Truth about Conservative Lies, Corporate Culture, and Television Culture. Washington, DC: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
  14. "Organized Sections Distribute Awards at 2002 Annual Meeting". PS: Political Science & Politics . 35 (4): 787–792. December 2002. doi:10.1017/S104909650200152X.
  15. Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RF80015, Allocation No. 228.
  16. "Green, Philip | Institute for Advanced Study". www.ias.edu. Archived from the original on 2015-07-07. Retrieved 2015-06-29.
  17. "Laura Green". www.northeastern.edu. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  18. "Another Green World Productions". www.anothergreenworld.com. Archived from the original on 2019-01-08. Retrieved July 2, 2015.
  19. Green, Philip. (2015). Taking Sides: A Memoir in Stories. Amherst, MA: Levellers Press.