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UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Justice as Fairness Modified: A Contractarian Coherentist Response to MacIntyre Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/15w7x72f Author Gillis, Robert Charles Publication Date 2017 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Justice as Fairness Modified: A Contractarian Coherentist Response to MacIntyre A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy by Robert Charles Gillis Committee in charge: Professor Georgios Anagnostopoulos, Chair Professor David Brink Professor Harvey Goldman Professor Gary Jacobson Professor S. Nicholas Jolley 2018 The Dissertation of Robert Charles Gillis is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ Chair University of California, San Diego 2018 iii DEDICATION I dedicate this to the memory of my parents, Herbert and Paula Gillis, and my Uncle, Charles Englund. Their hard work made it possible for me to study philosophy. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page …………………………………………………………………………......... iii Dedication …………………………………………………………………………………… iv Table of Contents ………………………………………………………………………...….. v List of Tables ………………………………………………………………………………... viii List of Graphs ………………………………………………………………….…………..… ix Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………..……………… x Vita …………………………………………...……………………………………………… xi Abstract of the Dissertation ……………...………………………………………………….. xii Chapter 1: MacIntyre’s Positive Account of Morality and Practical Reason ……………….. 1 I. Who’s MacIntyre? Which Book? ……………………………………………………... 1 II. MacIntyre’s Positive Account of Practical Reasoning ……………………………….. 2 A. The Aristotelian Character of Practical Reasoning ……………………………..... 3 B. The Narrative Structure of a Human Life ……………………………………...…. 6 C. From Narrative to Telos ………………………………………………………...… 8 D. The Quest for the Good as the Human Telos …………………………………...… 13 E. Self, Community, and the Virtues ……………………………………………...…. 15 F. Self, Community, and Tradition …………………………………………………... 18 G. Between Tradition and Cosmopolitanism ………………………………………… 21 III. Toward a Virtuous Polity: MacIntyre’s Perfectionism ……………………………... 25 A. MacIntyre’s Ideal Polity: Practices, Virtues, and Natural Law ………………….. 26 B. The Small-Scale Polity and Deliberation ……………………………………….... 29 C. Capitalism as Dysteleological …………………………………………………..... 30 D. Tyranny and Dissent: Rounding Out the Perfectionist Account ………………..... 32 IV. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………….. 34 Chapter 2: MacIntyre’s Critical Account of Modern Moral and Political Philosophy ……… 36 I. The Decline and Fall of the Enlightenment—MacIntyre’s Critical Account of Modern Practical Reason……………………………………………………………... 36 v II. MacIntyre’s Enlightenment Narrative ……………………………………………….. 39 A. Diderot .................................................................................................................... 39 B. Hume ....................................................................................................................... 40 C. Kant ......................................................................................................................... 41 D. Bentham .................................................................................................................. 43 E. Kierkegaard ............................................................................................................. 44 F. Summary of MacIntyre’s Enlightenment Narrative ................................................ 46 III. The Inevitability of the Failure of the Enlightenment ……………………………… 47 IV. The Consequences of the Failure of the Enlightenment ……………………………. 49 A. The Fragmentation Thesis ………………………………………………………... 49 B. The Interminability and Incommensurability Theses …………………………….. 52 C. Emotivist Culture …………………………………………………………………. 55 V. MacIntyre’s Critique of Liberal Politics …………………………………………….. 61 A. Liberalism as a Failed Tradition ………………………………………………….. 70 VI. Summary of Chapter and Further Explication …………………………………..….. 74 Chapter 3: Preliminary Assessment of MacInytre ………………………………………..…. 78 I. Introduction ………………………………………………………………………..…. 78 II. Five Criticisms of MacIntyre’s Moral Philosophy ………………………………..…. 78 A. The Interminability Thesis: How MacIntyre’s Own Examples Don’t Succeed …. 78 B. The Incommensurability Thesis ………………………………………………….. 87 C. The Meaning-Use Distinction: Morality Through the Looking-Glass …………… 90 D. The Fragmentation Thesis and a Pluralist Alternative …………………………… 94 1. The Fragmentation Thesis: Recapitulation …………………………….…. 94 2. Is the Modern Era So Different? ………………………………………..… 94 3. Two Alternatives ……………………………………………………….…. 96 (a) First Suggestion: Denying the Incommensurability Thesis by Showing the Partial Compatibility of Norms …………………… 97 (b) Second Suggestion: A Plurality of Goods is Complementary Rather Than a Result of Fragmentation …………………………. 99 E. Between Perfectionism and Pluralism: Moral Virtue Without Moral Resolution ... 113 F. Summary of Section II…………………………………………………………….. 117 III. MacIntyre’s Political Philosophy: Virtue and the Liberal State …...……………….. 117 A. MacIntyre and the Modern State: Manicheanism Without Heresy ……..………... 118 vi B. The Critique of Capitalism ………………………………………………………. 123 C. Liberalism ……………………………………………………………………….. 129 Chapter 4: Contactarianism, Coherentism, and Justice as Fairness ………………………… 139 I. Introduction …………………………………………………………………………... 139 II. The Aims of Liberalism: Freedom and Equality Amidst Value Pluralism …….……. 141 III. Persons and Their Moral Powers …………………………………………………… 146 IV. Contractarianism …………………………………………………………...………. 154 A. Circumstances of Justice ………………………………………………...……….. 155 B. Elements of the Contract …………………………………………………………. 156 C. Primary Goods ……………………………………………………………………. 162 D. Rational Choice Under Conditions of Uncertainty ………………………………. 166 V. Principles of Justice …………………………………………………………………. 184 A. The Liberty Principle …………………………………………………………….. 185 B. The Second Principle: Fair Equality of Opportunity ………………...…………... 189 C. The Third Principle: Sufficientarianism …………………………………………. 193 VI. Coherentism and Reflective Equilibrium …………………………………………... 201 A. Narrow Reflective Equilibrium (NRE) …………………………………………... 204 B. Wide Reflective Equilibrium (WRE) …………………………………………….. 207 C. Comprehensive Reflective Equilibrium (CRE) …………………………………... 209 Chapter 5: Justice as Fairness vs. Minimal-State Libertarianism: Answering MacIntyre …... 216 I. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 216 II. Nozick: Libertarianism as Utopian Ideal ..................................................................... 217 III. Nozick’s Minimal-State Libertarianism: Intuitionist or Coherentist? ……….……... 218 IV. Wide Reflective Equilibrium: Formal Self-Ownership vs. Substantive Self- Determination? ……………………………………………………………………… 226 V. Libertarianism and Justice as Fairness in Comprehensive Reflective Equilibrium ….. 242 VI. MacIntyre and Justice as Fairness: Rapprochement and Accommodation …………. 253 References …………………………………………………………………………………... 260 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Five Distributional Strategies …………………………………………………….... 167 viii LIST OF GRAPHS Graph 1: Government Revenue and Tax Rate ………………………………………………. 181 ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge my dissertation chair, Georgios Anagnostopoulos, for his kindness in taking on this project, and the other members of the committee for their willingness to participate. David Brink provided a perceptive reading and helpful comments, for which I am grateful. Nick Jolley has been my teacher since I began this journey many years ago. Thanks also to Harvey Goldman and Gary Jacobson for helping out. Several others I also wish to mention. Lou Matz was my roommate in graduate school, and I am grateful for his friendship and encouragement all along. To the philosophy department at Portland State University, deepest thanks for giving me a professional home for these years where I am blessed with many colleagues who are also friends. Among them, Tom Seppalainen has been uniquely so, and I owe him more than I can express here for his encouragement and for providing me with the opportunity to develop professionally. Thanks also to my wife, Sonia Huntley, for her encouragement, and our son, Josh Gillis, for inspiring me. x VITA 1985 Bachelor of Arts, Philosophy and Political Science, University of California, San Diego 1990 Master of Arts, Philosophy, University of California, San Diego 1993–2001 Adjunct Instructor, Department of Philosophy, Portland State University 2002–2009 Instructor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, Portland State University 2009–2017 Senior Instructor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, Portland State University 2018 Doctor of Philosophy, Philosophy, University of California, San Diego xi ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Justice as Fairness Modified: A Contractarian Coherentist Response to MacIntyre by Robert Charles Gillis Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy University of California, San Diego, 2018 Professor
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