"In Behalf P. N. Furbank argues that in thinking about society and politics one needs to start from the proposition that every human being contains within himself or herself the entire potentiality of the human species and that it is therefore wrong to regard cultural differences as innate."--BOOK JACKET. "Furbank proceeds to consider the question of what it means to act "on behalf" of others. He notes that the apparent strength of "politics of the person" - the ground of feminist, black, and gay politics, with its insistence that everyone should speak with his or her own distinctive voice unmediated by representation or action on behalf of others - is its freedom from the taint of philanthropy. But he argues that this freedom comes at a high price, which is no less than that of involving the term "politics" in self-contradiction. He concludes that there is seemingly no substitute for what one might call "politics proper" and that this form of politics is by nature on behalf of someone or something not itself - a politics that is, incurably, philanthropic and, being so, is exposed to all the snares and temptations with which philanthropy is plagued."--BOOK JACKET.