Phenomenology of the Political

This volume is a collection of phenomenological investigations of the political domain. The essays: analyze basic concepts such as action, community, and the relation of the political to the ethical; investigate fundamental issues such as the nation-state, leadership, sovereignty, and responsibility; and examine the convergence of these matters as exemplified in racial discrimination. The volume also includes discussions of the often-neglected work of such important contributors to this field as Alfred Schutz and Paul Ricoeur. The essays demonstrate that the distinctive contribution of phenomenology to political philosophy remains its commitment to the ways in which the matters it considers present themselves, rather than to the intellectual and philosophical frameworks within which they have traditionally been understood. The fidelity to this task - as evidenced throughout this collection - serves then not only to advance inquiry into the issues with which each essay is concerned but also to further an approach to political philosophy that, though still often overlooked in the mainstream, nevertheless continues to produce important and unique advances in the attempt to understand the fundamental problems of the political sphere.