Concealed Silences and Inaudible Voices in Political Thinking

Concealed Silences and Inaudible Voices in Political Thinking explores silence as a normal,ubiquitous,and indispensable element of political thinking,theory,and language. It highlights the diverse dimensions in which silences mold the different core features of the political,departing from the typical focus on intentional silencing and the dominance of logos. The book demonstrates the common threads that connect silences to those different disciplines,alongside the features that pull them asunder. It offers an analysis of silence from a multi-perspectival range of disciplines,providing a comprehensive and holistic view of silence and the political.

Format: Hardback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 20 October 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Concealed Silences and Inaudible Voices in Political Thinking delves into the pervasive and indispensable role of silence in political thought, theory, and language. It explores the multifaceted dimensions in which silences shape the core aspects of politics, functioning as a highly versatile power resource that both enables and constrains significant social practices, traditions, and currents. This book departs from the conventional emphasis on intentional silencing and the dominance of logos, instead highlighting the concealed and unrecognized ways in which silence permeates socio-political life and assumes the guises of the unspeakable, the ineffable, the inarticulable, and the unconceptualizable. Drawing extensively from historical, philosophical, anthropological, psychoanalytical, theological, linguistic, and literary perspectives, the book demonstrates the interconnected threads that link silences to these diverse disciplines, as well as the factors that differentiate them. In extracting and decoding their political implications, the book examines both academic literature and colloquial, everyday discourse.

Through the use of select case studies, Michael Freeden explores topics such as Buddhist nondualism, Locke's tacit consent, the submergence of historical narratives, state neutrality, Pinter's miscommunications and menace, and the distinct ways ideologies incorporate silence into their beliefs. The book offers an analysis of silence from a multi-perspectival range of disciplines, providing a comprehensive and holistic view of silence and the political.

Weight: 634g
Dimension: 241 x 163 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780198833512