Caring Without Sharing: Philanthropy's Creation and Destruction of the Common World

<p>This dissertation explores multiple ways philanthropy builds and undermines the common world. Political science treatments of philanthropy have focused mainly on its role in the development of civil society, with a recent turn towards critiques of philanthropy as an instrument of elite power and tension between private wealth and democratic governance. In this dissertation, I examine how philanthropy can foster enduring spaces of human flourishing, or reduce beneficiaries to objects of pity, surveillance and domination. I trace philanthropy's evolution from ancient to contemporary contexts and propose a framework for philanthropy to, under certain conditions, build and care for the common world, where philanthropic gifts create and maintain enduring spaces and institutions that allow the public realm to be the domain of appearance and plurality. Hannah Arendt translates <em>philanthropia</em> as “a readiness to share the world with other men.” Using Arendt, this dissertation proposes a new framework for political theories of philanthropy, one that can determine its role in public life based on donors’ commitment to an enduring world and to sharing with others the responsibility for its care.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Political Science

Grantor

The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York

Year dc:date.available

2019

Author dc:creator

• Schiller, Amy B

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Corey Robin

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Carol C. Gould
• Leonard Feldman

• Ethics and Political Philosophy
• Political Theory
• Social History
• Philanthropy
• Hannah Arendt
• Capitalism
• Civil Society
• Public Affairs

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3482

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:gc_etds-4536