A Grammar of the Common Good Speaking of Globalization [Hardcover]

Globalization: the catch-all term used to refer to a complex reality whereby humanity faces global challenges to do with a shared environment - global warming, a global economic order in the absence of significant global governance, international institutions which lack independence from the member states which comprise them, and the possibility of violence, whether using a car- or plane-bomb or nuclear weapons, in the name of whatever cause. Such realities raise major questions about the intellectual and moral resources available to humanity to deal with the challenges posed, and the topic of the common good has enjoyed an explosion of interest recently in various disciplines and in different areas of life.

Patrick Riordan's timely study analyzes the concept of the common good as it is used in debates within political philosophy, economics, theology and most recently globalization, clarifying distinctions in definition and offering clarity and precision for a common language appropriate to debates on globalization.

1. Common Good: Self-evident and Confused
2. Common Good: A Heuristic Concept
3. Common Cause: The Enron Case
4. Modelling Common Good Talk
5. Useful Distinctions
6. Medieval Perspectives
7. Common Good in Political Thought
8. Political Common Good and Catholic Social Thought
9. Common Good in Economic Thought
10. The Economy and Catholic Social Thought
11. Common Good in Other Words 12. Globalization and Common Good