Michael WALZER, Astrid v. BUSEKIST - Justice is Steady Work, Polity Press 2020 (Proofs) (original) (raw)
This book is the result of a unique experience. During our conversations, Michael Walzer kindly agreed to respond to all my questions, which were sometimes difficult, and at times critical. He agreed to reflect on the meaning of his work, to comment on the questions his books and articles continue to raise, and on the reception of his ideas, theoretical and political. He also shared some personal joys and political disappointments. Thank you Michael. I owe special thanks to Amélie Ferey who has transcribed parts of our conversation. Eyal Chovers, Raphael Zagury Orly, Ronit Peleg, and Joseph Cohen were the co-organizers of the Conference on May 68, Legacies of Resistance at the University of Tel Aviv in June 2018, where we talked about Michael's political activism during the Civil Rights movement, and the campaign against the Vietnam War (Chapter 2). I am grateful to Tila Rudel and Yael Baruch from the French Institute at Tel Aviv. At Sciences Po, I am grateful to the co-organizers of our Political Theory Seminar. We welcomed Michael in Paris as guest speaker in March 2018. Gaëlle Durif and Jerôme Guilbert helped us to organize and to screen his talk "Freedom and Equality." Ariel Colonomos, Azar Gat, and Yoel Mitrani suggested questions, and Tom Theuns translated the Introduction. Ian Shapiro was the messenger between Paris and Princeton. Thanks to a fellowship from the Israel Institute (israelinstitute. org) I was able to spend a month in Israel. Many thanks to Itamar Rabinovitch, Daniel Skek, and the staff at the Institute. Judith B. Walzer generously lent me her husband for a while in
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An Interview with Michael Walzer
Studies in Philosophy and Education, 2002
Michael Walzer is currently at the School of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, New Jersey. Professor Walzer has written Just and Unjust Wars; The Revolution of the Saints and has edited Toward A Global Civil Society. In this interview, he discusses some of the current concerns about education, political theory and the current state of the art of toleration, and acceptance and accommodation of different racial, ethnic, social and minority groups. He has published extensively and his work has been translated in several other languages. In this interview, he responds to questions about his work, his writings and his current concerns.
Isis, 2016
desperate Salk became, even telling a confidant that "he wanted to return to the original idea of setting up his institute in Pittsburgh" (p. 109). O'Connor, however, was prepared to fight on to fund the La Jolla site. Salk's name had to be put into the project's title and a vigorous program of advertisement undertaken. Bourgeois's account follows the history through the crisis of 1970 and on to the point where the project arrived at a stable condition. The author has revealed a thread of concern running through the history: namely, how to establish research of a humanistic nature-studying, for example, the impact of science on society-alongside work in the experimental sciences. (Szilard's scheme of 1957 had suggested two separate institutes: one for science, the other for its social impact.) At certain times, she judges, this aim was achieved at the institute, but under Frederic de Hoffmann's presidency (1975-1988) humanistic studies were eliminated. At the same time, she notes, there was a change in the social character of the institute, from intimacy and a nonhierarchical character to a more distant and exclusive one. Bourgeois's strong dislike of President de Hoffmann leads her to make some claims that are not referenced to specific documents or reports. His positive achievements as president, nonetheless, are described. But there is no doubt as to who the admirable actors are and are not. Entitling the de Hoffmann chapter "A Napoleon from Byzantium" certainly tells us what to expect! Compare this with the generous coverage given to Szilard in Chapter 4. His claim to importance in the genesis of the Salk Institute seems somewhat slim, based on his memorandum with the organic chemist William von Eggers Doering and his personal interest in Salk's future plans. Yet Szilard's role in this account serves to underline the context of post-World War II recovery and the heightened concern for the peaceful applications of science. Hence the envisaged broad agendas of fundamental research in the biomedical sciences, both pure and applied, and concern with issues relating to the applications of science. This important book should draw the attention of scholars to the valuable archival resources established by the Facilities Services team at the Salk Institute. It is a very welcome addition to institutional history, a guide and a warning to those who plan to create an independent research facility, and an interesting example of the attractions of the West Coast for scientific research in the 1950s.
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