Sobre la utopía

by Judith N. Shklar

Judith N. Shklar es una de las figuras más influyentes de la teoría política estadounidense del período comprendido entre los debates sobre "el final de la ideología", en la década de 1950, y los relativos al "final de la historia", en la década de 1990. Sin embargo, a pesar de haber ejercido tal influencia, el legado de la autora continúa en cierta medida ensombrecido cuando se lo compara con el de pensadores como Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin o John Rawls, si bien en los últimos años su figura se ha agrandado gracias al renovado y creciente interés en su trabajo, con abundantes traducciones al alemán, el francés y el castellano, entre otros idiomas, y con números monográficos dedicados por diversas publicaciones a su pensamiento. En este volumen, presentamos dos ensayos en los que la autora retoma el asunto de su ópera prima y, desde un liberalismo escéptico y del mal menor, vuelve a poner el foco en la utopía y en las ideas políticas transformadoras.

105 pages, Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 2021

About the author

Judith Shklar was born as Judita Nisse in Riga, Latvia to Jewish parents. Because of persecution during World War II, her family fled Europe over Japan to the US and finally to Canada in 1941, when she was thirteen. She began her studies at McGill University at the age of 16, receiving bachelor of art and master of art degrees in 1949 and 1950, respectively. She later recalled that the entrance rules to McGill at the time required 750 points for Jews and 600 for everyone else. She received her PhD degree from Harvard University in 1955. Her mentor was the famous political theorist Carl Joachim Friedrich, who, she later recalled, only ever offered her one compliment: "Well, this isn't the usual thesis, but then I did not expect it to be." Eventually she became his successor.

Shklar joined the Harvard faculty in 1956, becoming the first woman to receive tenure in Harvard's Government Department in 1971. During her first year in the job, the Department permitted her to stay at home with her first child while writing her first book. When it came time for her tenure decision, the Department dithered, so Shklar proposed a half-time appointment with effective tenure and the title of lecturer, partly because she had three children by then. In 1980, she was appointed to be the John Cowles Professor of Government. Her friend and colleague Stanley Hoffmann once remarked, “she was by far the biggest star of the department.” Hoffmann also called her "the most devastatingly intelligent person I ever knew here."

During her career, Shklar served in various academic and professional capacities. For example, she was active in the committee that integrated the American Repertory Theater into the Harvard community.

Throughout her life, Judith Shklar was known as "Dita." She and her husband, Gerald Shklar, had three children, David, Michael, and Ruth