Four Philosophers and the Bomb (Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought)

In this book, Alberto Castelli, Giunia Gatta, Micaela Latini, and Francesco Raschi examine how four prominent intellectuals of the 20th century (Bertrand Russell, Karl Jaspers, Raymond Aron, and Günther Anders) understood atomic warfare. With a chapter devoted to the philosophical ideas of each thinker and how they understood and interpreted war, the authors analyze the historic-political context in which these ideas emerged and what they proposed to avoid a nuclear disaster.

Four Philosophers and the Bomb will be of interest to students and researchers of peace studies, international relations, political philosophy, and moral philosophy.

Alberto Castelli teaches History of Political Thought at the University of Insubria. Castelli’s research interests primarily concern the critique of violence as a means to change (for the better) the world.

Giunia Gatta teaches political philosophy at Bocconi University. She is interested in those aspects of politics that defy rationalization and in the role of emotions in motivating political action. The authors who most inform her thinking are Karl Jaspers, Judith Shklar, and Hannah Arendt. Her work has appeared in Contemporary Political Theory, Philosophy and Social Criticism, The Review of Politics, among others, and her book on Shklar was published by Routledge in 2018.

Micaela Latini is Associate Professor of German Literature at the University of Ferrara, where she also teaches Aesthetics. She is a member of the Doctoral Program in Human Sciences at the University of Ferrara. Her research is located at the intersection of German literature, philosophy, animal studies, and visual studies. Her current focus is on the images of contemporary wars and representations of animals in German literature and culture from the 18th to the 21st century.

Francesco Raschi is Associate Professor of History of Political Thought at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna. His teaching activity takes place at the Forlì Campus. His research interests include post-revolutionary political liberalism and contemporary liberalism.