Judith N. Shklar
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Judith Nisse Shklar (September 24, 1928 - September 17, 1992) was a famous political theorist, the John Cowles Professor of Government at Harvard University.
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[edit] Biography
Judith Shklar was born in Riga, Latvia. She graduated from McGill University and received B.A and M.A. degrees in 1949 and 1950. She received her Ph.D degree from Harvard University in 1955.
After graduation, Shklar became a faculty member at Harvard University and spent her entire academic career there. She was the first tenured woman in Harvard's Government Department. She was also president of the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy and president of the American Political Science Association.
She was a renowned teacher and advisor, shaping two generations of Harvard-trained political theorists who have since become leaders in the field. Many of her former students contributed to a volume of essays on her thought, Liberalism Without Illusions, edited by Bernard Yack.
[edit] Works
Professor Shklar wrote many influential books and articles on political science including After Utopia: The Decline of Political Faith (1957); Legalism: Law, Morals, and Political Trials (Harvard University Press, 1964, ISBN 0-674-52351-2); Men and Citizens: A Study of Rousseau's Social Theory (1969), Freedom and Independence: A Study of the Political Ideas of Hegel's Phenomenology of Mind (1976); Ordinary Vices (1984); The Faces of Injustice (1990); American Citizenship: The Quest for Inclusion (1991).
Several of her essays, including the classic 'The Liberalism of Fear', have been collected in two posthumous volumes from the University of Chicago Press, Political Thought and Political Thinkers, edited by Stanley Hoffman (1998), and Redeeming American Political Thought.
[edit] Beliefs
Professor Shklar's thought centered around two main beliefs: that cruelty is the greatest evil, and her idea of "liberalism of fear." She believed that "every adult should be able to make as many effective decisions without fear or favor about as many aspects of her or his life as is compatible with the like freedom of every adult." (Judith Shklar, The Liberalism of Fear) She described rights less as absolute moral liberties and more as licenses which citizens must have in order to protect themselves against abuse.
