A POPULISM OF THE
SPIRIT
FURTHER ESSAYS IN
POLITICS AND UNIVERSAL ETHICS
Shimon Cowen
Paperback, 378 pages, $39.95
ISBN: 9781922815293
January 2023 release.
A Populism of the Spirit –
Further Essays on Politics and Universal Ethics is a sequel to Shimon
Cowen’s Politics and Universal Ethics, which found strong resonance with
politicians from both sides of politics who hosted its launches in all six
State Legislatures of Australia. Both books explore general questions for the
idea of universal ethics, their application to contemporary political issues
and the features of contemporary culture which challenge them.
The ideal espoused in these books
is that diverse political temperaments within individual societies, and diverse
national cultures within world society, can together constitute a civilization,
harmonious and luminous because it reflects objective, universal norms. Yet
this can be gained only through a “populism” – a resurgence and reassertion –
of the human spirit, which recognizes those universal ethics.
Many of the essays in A
Populism of the Spirit, as in its predecessor volume, take their cue as
responses to specific legislative and policy challenges to universal ethics in
Australia. This does not limit their relevance to other societies around the
world, for the Australian scene is simply a microcosm of global issues not only
of Western, but also of non-Western, societies. The author’s The Theory and
Practice of Universal Ethics – the Noahide Laws has been translated into
Chinese, Russian, Spanish and Indonesian.
Rabbi Dr Shimon Cowen, out of a
dual background of secular academia and traditional religious studies, founded
and directs the Institute for Judaism and Civilization in Melbourne, Australia.
He is a son of a former Governor General of Australia, Sir Zelman Cowen.
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