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Arguing About Political Philosophy 3rd Edition
Author(s): Matt Zwolinski (Editor), Mario I. Juarez-Garcia
- Publisher: Routledge
- Publication Date: July 30, 2025
- Edition: 3rd
- Language: English
- Print length: 776 pages
- ISBN-10: 1032863528
- ISBN-13: 9781032863528
Book Description
This third edition of Arguing About Political Philosophy is the most complete, up-to-date, and interdisciplinary anthology of its kind. Its selections cover classic philosophical sources such as those from Thomas Hobbes and John Rawls, important works in political economy from thinkers like Adam Smith, Friedrich Hayek, and Karl Marx, and the writing of cutting-edge contemporary theorists like Debra Satz, Jason Brennan, and Ta-Nehisi Coates.
The third edition has been substantially revised to make it more suitable for a growing number of courses in philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE). New topics and new readings help to explore the intersection of these three disciplines at a theoretical level, and how they help us to think about challenging practical problems like regulating sweatshop labor, reconciling immigration policy with social justice, and thinking about the virtues and limits of democracy.
In addition to offering sections on foundational concepts, political economy, and contemporary debates in political philosophy, the third edition contains a brand-new section on political ideologies, with a new introduction and accessible readings setting out the main features of liberalism, socialism, conservatism, and libertarianism.
The updated Instructor and Student Resource website www.routledge.com/cw/zwolinski offers valuable resources for instructors and students alike, including sample quizzes, exams, and writing assignments, extensive study questions for each reading, and an online version of the “What’s Your Political Philosophy” self-assessment.
Key Updates to the Third Edition:
- Includes more interdisciplinary readings from economists and political scientists.
- Contains readings that make the volume a better fit for new programs in philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE).
- Offers a better representation of diverse ideological perspectives.
- Provides new coverage of emerging topics like reparations for past injustice, sweatshop labor, immigration policy, effective altruism, and the value of democracy.
- Updates the important parts on the book’s website: sample quizzes, exams, and writing assignments, extensive study questions for each reading, and an online version of the “What’s Your Political Philosophy” self-assessment.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Praise for the Third Edition:
“There is a renewed interest in the grand contentions of political philosophy. The problem is that students often find the traditional approach, “mastering thinkers,” to be tedious at best, and daunting to many because of the amount of time required. The PPE approach, of which the editors of Arguing About are masters, allows a focus on problems rather than thinkers. This has two advantages: first, excerpts like those presented here are a way of staging debates among thinkers of different perspectives and from different eras. It’s like time travel, without getting up from your desk chair. Second, it provides the students an entry point for understanding why a particular thinker is important, and gives them reasons to learn more on their own. This new edition of Arguing About Political Philosophy 3rd Edition is a most valuable contribution to our pedagogical arsenal for the new PPE.”
— Michael Munger, Duke University, USA.
“Matt Zwolinski and Mario Juarez-Garcia have assembled a lively anthology that retains a commitment to high standards while being extremely student-friendly as well. Arguing About Political Philosophy 3rd Edition is above all about ideas, and it is refreshing to see so many diverse ideological perspectives brought together in one teaching text. Well-organized and judiciously selected, this collection provides an ideal foundation on which to build your own world-class course in political philosophy.”
— John Tomasi, Brown University, USA.
“As social and political change comes ever more quickly, it’s becoming increasingly vital to understand the core challenges and opportunities of living together. This volume does a masterful job of showing a student of political philosophy the many tradeoffs any society has to make when choosing the rules that govern us. Zwolinski and Juarez-Garcia have embraced the PPE approach, showing to a new generation of students how questions of justice are intimately tied up in questions of the design of markets, competing models of freedom, and disagreements about how we ought to understand political equality. These debates are made real for students not just with readings that represent range of political perspectives, but also by considering case studies where liberal values can readily conflict with each other. This new edition of Arguing About Political Philosophy is a wonderful contemporary introduction to the core challenges in political philosophy.”
– Ryan Muldoon, University at Buffalo, USA.
About the Author
Matt Zwolinski is Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Diego, USA, founder and director of USD’s Center for Ethics, Economics, and Public Policy, and director of USD’s undergraduate program in philosophy, politics, and economics. He is the co-author, with John Tomasi, of The Individualists: Radicals, Reactionaries, and the Struggle for the Soul of Libertarianism (2023), and with Miranda Perry Fleischer, of Universal Basic Income: What Everyone Needs to Know (2023).
Mario I. Juarez-Garcia is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Tulane University, USA. His areas of specialization are political philosophy, moral philosophy, and PPE and he has published scholarly articles in Synthese, Public Affairs Quarterly, Journal of Moral Philosophy, and Social Philosophy and Policy. He is also the author of Moral Institutions: An Introduction to Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (Routledge, 2025).
