ABSTRACT
This book examines diseases and disasters from the perspective of social and political theory, exploring the ways in which political leaders, social activists, historians, philosophers, and writers have tried to make sense of the catastrophes that have plagued humankind from Thucydides to the present COVID pandemic. By adopting the perspective of political theory, it sheds light on what these individuals and events can teach us about politics, society, and human nature, as well as the insights and limitations of political theory. Including thinkers such as Thucydides, Sophocles, Augustine, Bacon, Locke, Hume, Rousseau, Publius, Bartolomé de las Casas, Jane Addams, Camus, Saramago, Baudrillard, Weber, Schmitt, Voegelin and Agamben, it considers a diverse range of events including the plagues of Byzantium and 14th century Europe, 9/11, the hurricanes of Fukushima, Boxing Day, and New Orleans, and the current COVID pandemic. An examination of past, present, and future diseases and disasters, and the ways in which individuals and societies react to them, this volume will appeal to scholars of politics, sociology, anthropology and philosophy with interests in disaster and the social body.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
section I|61 pages
In the Time of COVID
section II|50 pages
Modern Solutions, Modern Problems
chapter 8|10 pages
Perfectibility, Disaster, and Disease
section III|51 pages
God, Plagues, and Empires in Antiquity
chapter 11|9 pages
Saint Augustine and the Politics of Sovereign Charity
chapter 12|12 pages
On the Uses and Abuses of Disaster for Life
section IV|50 pages
Reflections on Surviving Disasters