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Dystopophobia: aversion to the worst in the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, Edmund Burke, and Karl Popper
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Richards, Michael A.. Dystopophobia: aversion to the worst in the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, Edmund Burke, and Karl Popper. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-y8ve-pj68

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TitleDystopophobia: aversion to the worst in the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, Edmund Burke, and Karl Popper
NameRichards, Michael A. (author); Murphy, Andrew R (chair); Bathory, Dennis (internal member); Miller, Lisa (internal member); Haddock, Bruce (outside member); Rutgers University; School of Graduate Studies
Date Created2019
Other Date2019-10 (degree)
SubjectDystopias -- Philosophy, Political Science
Extent1 online resource (ix, 355 pages)
DescriptionPolitical theorists generally proceed by proposing ideal principles and utopian visions for society. Against this prevailing trend, this dissertation explores the possibility of political theory oriented around avoiding dystopia. Through an analysis of Thomas Hobbes, Edmund Burke, and Karl Popper – three Anglophone political theorists whose political theory shares an “aversional” quality – this dissertation asks, what in the moral, social, and political theory of these three thinkers explains and justifies their emphasis upon avoiding bad outcomes and human misery, rather than searching for ideals of justice and utopia? What philosophical and political beliefs, concepts, or strings of argument shared by these thinkers make their theories effectively focused upon avoiding bad outcomes? This dissertation sketches a dystopophobic family resemblance shared between the three. At the core of this resemblance is the identification of an asymmetry between goodness and badness, and a conceptualization of political matters operating at two levels: 1) at level of society and the structures and institutions that organize society to avoid dystopia; and, 2) the level of the individual within society whose life can go better or worse. This bifurcation manifests in a tension between the emancipatory urge to improve the condition of the worst off in society with a conservative eye still firmly fixed on protecting the stabilizing elements in the polity that protect against dystopian political disintegration.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Genretheses, ETD doctoral
Persistent URLhttps://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-y8ve-pj68
LanguageEnglish
CollectionSchool of Graduate Studies Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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