The Needs of Strangers

<p><b>Reissue of a profound exploration of the concept of human need by the esteemed author of <i>On Consolation</i></b><br><br>What does a person need not just to survive but to flourish? In this profound searching book Michael Ignatieff explores the many human needs that go beyond basic sustenance: for love for respect for community and consolation. In a society of strangers how might we find a common language to express such needs?<br><br>Ignatieff's lucid penetrating enquiry takes him back to great works of philosophy literature and art from St. Augustine to Hieronymus Bosch to Shakespeare. Reissued with a new preface <i>The Needs of Strangers</i> builds to a moving meditation on the possibility of accommodating claims of difference within a politics based on common need.</p>