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- ItemOpen AccessPolitical Friendship and the Second Self in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics(2004) Vander Valk, Francis; Fitzsimmons, Scott; Singh, AnitaThe difficulty that academics have faced in resolving the tensions between competing interpretations of Aristotelian political friendship can be traced to a lack of attention paid to Aristotle’s understanding of the self. The friend, Aristotle tells us, is a 'second self,' but it is not clear what he means by this phrase. One group of contemporary commentators (to whom I give the name Strong Integrationists) suggests that Aristotle calls for an intimate connection between moral and political forms of friendship. Strong Integrationists, in making their arguments, tacitly assume a more-or-less Cartesian understanding of the self. I suggest that this assumption is in error. The Aristotelian self is generally unstable, fractured, and only rarely capable of the sustained virtue that characterizes the highest form of friendship. By reexamining the nature of the Aristotelian self I hope to provide a reading of political friendship that is more faithful to Aristotle’s text, and more in line with his own philosophical assumptions.
- ItemOpen AccessInnovations: A Journal of Politics Call for Papers(2004) Fitzsimmons, Scott; Singh, Anita
- ItemOpen AccessComposite Diplomacy: Canadian Innovation Amidst Global Uncertainty(2004) Barrett, Robert S.; Fitzsimmons, Scott; Singh, AnitaThis condensed paper is the culmination of a one-year research effort – an investigation addressing two issue areas: the first being the West’s apparent and disturbing inability to address and ameliorate emerging forms of global intrastate war, and second, Canada’s dire need to resurrect its foreign policy in order to actively participate on the world stage. In answering both of these problems, the paper proposes that Canada adopt, as a policy focus, a newly formed diplomatic strategy termed Composite Diplomacy.
- ItemOpen AccessMexican Labour Politics at a Critical Juncture(2004) Hilgers, Tina; Fitzsimmons, Scott; Singh, AnitaThis article reviews the current political situation of Mexican organized labour and the academic debate regarding unions’ relevance to Mexican democracy, drawing attention to the importance of Federal Labour Law reform. With the 1997 parliamentary elections, Mexico entered a critical juncture of regime change. Civil society’s – particularly labour’s – participation in policy-making is crucial to the establishment of inclusive political structures beyond the electoral arena, to stabilize this fledgling democracy. Given labour’s political weakness leading up to, and potential representational importance at, this critical juncture, I suggest that the participation of both official and independent labour in the mesa working to craft Federal Labour Code reform provides an important reference point for studies of the quality of Mexican democracy.
- ItemOpen AccessInnovations: A Journal of Politics Index, Forward, Notes on Contributors(2004) Fitzsimmons, Scott; Singh, Anita