Cambridge Scholars Publishing 'Philosophy' – After the End of Philosophy: In a Globalizing and Glocalizing World

The essays included in this collection deal with a wide and diverse range of problems and issues: namely, Cultural Complexity; Globalization; Glocalization; Relativism; Bullshit; Embodied and Situated Cognition; Capabilities Approach; Moral Universalism; Solidarity; Cosmopolitanism; Pluralism; Human Rights; Justice; and “Philosophy” after the end of Philosophy. This work takes its main title from the last essay, in which the author makes an effort to rethink the nature and purpose of “philosophy” for our times, sketching a proposal for a new beginning for philosophy as “critical philosophy.” Such a philosophy would have a clear and compelling emancipatory thrust. At this point in human history, it would have to be underwritten by an ethical universalism that is pluralistic, historically enlightened and non-ethnocentric. In addition, it would take seriously the consequences of complexity in a world that is increasingly interconnected and interdependent, yet still so far apart, and would be prepared to draw the full implications of the embodied and situated cognition paradigm shift which has taken place in the past few decades. It would, furthermore, take aim at the bullshit, in all of its manifestations, that is so pervasive in various quarters throughout the whole of culture and society. Finally, it would effectively contribute to the articulation and elaboration of the kinds of concepts, frameworks, narratives and practices, generally speaking, which could somehow enable humans to rise to the next level in their understanding of the globalizing and glocalizing world in which they live, and which is, as is common knowledge, dramatically confronted by a number of serious challenges, grave risks and threats, dismal shortcomings and failures. This work offers compelling analyses and diagnostics, and makes some sketch-proposals to urgently grapple with them. Review "This book consists of a number of lively and provocative essays about matters that ought to concern us all. It argues that it is important to recognize the fragmentary nature of culture in the modern world if we are to come to grips with such problems as human rights, social justice, democracy and human development. It explores objections to cultural relativism, and inquires into what ought to replace it. “Bullshit”, paradigms of cognitive research, conflicting approaches to social justice, problems of global solidarity and cosmopolitanism, universal human rights, and liberalism in a global context are all subjected to searching critical analysis. Particularly admirable is the way in which Chokr engages with the views of a wide range of recent and present-day philosophers, both critically and sympathetically. The book concludes with an essay about what philosophy should be after the death of philosophy. Chokr holds that philosophy should be concerned with the real life problems of women and men, and he boldly spells out ten basic features the new philosophy should possess."―Nicholas Maxwell, University College London."Informed by a basic concern for real-life issues of human rights, N Chokr takes on – in this well-researched collection of nine essays – the different approaches current in contemporary political philosophy to the underlying question of what a just human order might be. Steering punctiliously between relativist and universalist theories, he develops a cosmopolitan and pluralistic universalism approach that seeks to accommodate a utopian outlook with a grounded realism. The effort, in effect, and as he sees it, lays the groundwork for a re-formulation of the philosophy project – bringing it down from the ‘metaphysical heights’ it has historically been associated with to the applied domain of real human concerns."―Sari Nusseibeh, Al-Quds University. About the Author Nader N. Chokr is a Professor of Philosophy and Social Sciences who has lectured and taught for thirty years or so at various institutions aroun