--- begin forwarded text Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 09:57:18 -0700 Reply-To: Hayek Related Research <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sender: Hayek Related Research <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: List Host <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Organization: Hayek Center for Interdisciplinary Research Subject: BOOK: M Rhodes _Coercion_ To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Michael R. Rhodes Coercion: A Nonevaluative Approach Amsterdam/Atlanta, GA 2000. XI,193 pp. (Value Inquiry Book Series 92) ISBN: 90-420-0789-3 Hfl. 70,-/US-$ 38.50 In this book, Rhodes provides a nonevaluative account of coercion. He begins with a thorough discussion of the charge that coercion is an essentially contested concept. He argues that effective communication of regulations pertaining to human conduct requires a basic level of clarity as to the kind of conduct being regulated. Accordingly, he argues that before we prescribe or proscribe conduct, we should describe it. In short, he maintains that wherever possible description should precede prescription and proscription. Rhodes begins his descriptive project by providing a fundamental account of human motivation. Upon this foundation he supports his distinctions between threats, offers, throffers, and neutral proposals. He argues that all coercion claims can be understood in light of these components. He applies this analysis to three prominent accounts of coercion as advanced by F.A. Hayek, Harry Frankfurt, and Robert Nozick. After comparing and contrasting these views, Rhodes provides his own account. Rhodes's account is based upon the identification of what he refers to as perceived-threat-avoidance-behavior as a necessary condition for coercion. As a descriptive, or nonevaluative, account, Rhodes is able to identify coercion independent from normative judgments. He argues that it is not the wrongfulness of some conduct that makes it coercion, instead, it is the coerciveness of some conduct that makes it wrong. Unique to Rhode's account, coercion is not necessarily wrong. As a descriptive account, his view permits an independent analysis of the moral status of an act of coercion. The book concludes with a discussion of the normatively significant variables of a coercion claim. Contents: Editorial Foreword by Richard T. Hull. Acknowledgments. ONE Essential Contestability and Evaluative Concepts. TWO Our Own Doings. THREE Works on Coercion. FOUR Coercion and Morality. Notes. Bibliography. About the Author. Index. Rodopi Website: http://www.rodopi.nl E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Amsterdam Phone: + 31 20 6114821 Fax:: + 31 20 4472979 Atlanta, GA Tel: (404) 843-4445 toll-free (US only) 1-800-225-3998 Fax: (404) 843-4315 ---------- Book notices are a regular feature of the Hayek-L list. Hayek-L Archive: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/hayek-l.html Hayek Scholars Page: http://www.hayekcenter.org/friedrichhayek/hayek.html Scholars Bookstore: http://www.hayekcenter.org/bookstore/scholars_books.html --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
