The Perfectionism of John Rawls
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The Centrality of Practical Reason: Dworkin and Kant
The centrality of practical reason: Dworkin and Kant In one of his latest books Justice for Hedgehogs (2011) Ronald Dworkin presents a thorough critique of contemporary ethical discourse. Explicitly his arguments mostly seek to undermine the main premises of metaethics, especially, the assumption that it is possible to think and talk about ethics from a neutral Archimedian position and to find its grounding in scientific or metaphysical facts. Moreover, he aims to present his own position as a specific revolution – a position which questions all the ways of approaching ethics that dominate or influence the field of moral philosophy since modern times, namely Descartes. There have been many attempts to criticize, question and evaluate this critique, its accuracy and extent.1 However, much less effort have been made to properly and comprehensively evaluate the constructive and potential side of Dworkin’s position. The main question that his critique of contemporary ethical discourse raises is ‘How should we approach ethical questions and problems?’ or ‘How should we do moral philosophy?’ Such questions are essential for the discourse itself. They should determine not only the shape and methods, but also the future and raison d’etre of ethical theory as such. Dworkin himself takes Hume to be the inspiration for his revolution. According to Dworkin, Hume’s distinction between fact and value gives us a clear guidance as to how we should proceed in ethical discourse. Dworkin develops this distinction as his main argument that ethics is an independent domain of thought. However, my paper argues, that despite Dworkin’s appeal of Hume, his position cannot be seen as Humean and is much more akin to Kant as there are several substantial conformities between their theories and premises. -
Phil of Law 2014 Syllabus
Princeton University Politics 563/Philosophy 526 Spring 2014 Philosophy of Law Robert P. George and Michael Smith This seminar will consider a range of issues in philosophy of law with particular emphasis on various dimensions of the relationship between law and morality. Requirements: Students are required to read each week's assignments carefully and participate regularly in seminar discussions. Each student must make a presentation to the seminar. Two written work options are available: (1) a long (7000 word) paper on any topic addressed in the seminar or (2) two shorter (3500), critical essays on issues we have explored. These may, but need not, be related to the topic of one’s presentation. Those readings marked with an asterisk (*) are on e-reserve. The following books (all available in paperback editions) are worth purchasing: Ronald Dworkin, Law’s Empire John Finnis, Natural Law and Natural Rights, 2nd edition Lon L. Fuller, The Morality of Law H.L.A. Hart, The Concept of Law, 2nd edition Joseph Raz, Practical Reason and Norms Week 1: Organizational Meeting *O. W. Holmes, “The Path of the Law,” in The Essential Holmes, ed. Richard Posner, pp. 160-77 *John Austin, “The Province of Jurisprudence Determined, “ in The Philosophy of Law, eds. F. Schauer, W. Sinnot-Armstrong, pp. 32-39 *Carl Llewellyn, “The Bramble Bush, a Realistic Jurisprudence, and the common Law Tradition,” in The Philosophy of Law, eds. F. Schauer, W. Sinnot-Armstrong, pp. 53-62 Week 2: Hart's Concept of Law H.L.A. Hart, The Concept of Law, chs. I-VI *Jonathan Cohen, "Critical Notice of Hart's The Concept of Law," in Mind, Vol. -
Hegel's Philosophy of Right As a Theory of Justice
Copyrighted Material I egel’s Philosophy of Right as a H heory of ustice T J Although many contemporary philosophers have embraced Hegelian philosophy to a surprising degree—which may even help to bridge the gulf between the Analytic and Continental traditions—Hegel’s Elements of the Philosophy of Right has so far failed to exert the slightest influence on the current debates in political philosophy. Rather, in recent years—after the abrupt end of the Marxist phase and its reduction of modern right to a mere superstructure—philosophers returned on a broad front to the rationalist paradigm of the Kantian tradition, which es- sentially dominates the debate from Rawls to Habermas; and however hard these two authors in particular try to embed their Kantian concepts of justice in a realistic, almost social-scientific approach, the theoretical model of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right plays no decisive part in their thought. Nor has the situation changed much in response to the countermovement in political philosophy that came into being through the somewhat arti- ficial grouping of theoreticians as diverse as Charles Taylor, Michael Walzer, or Alasdair MacIntyre under the heading of “communitarianism.” Despite a strong tendency to award a privileged position to ethics as opposed to a formalistic prin- ciple of morality, or to communal values as opposed to arbi- trary individual freedom, no real attempt has been made in these circles to render Hegel’s Philosophy of Right fruitful for the discourse of political philosophy. Indeed, the fact that authors Copyrighted Material chapter 1 such as Michael Walzer, Alasdair MacIntyre, or Joseph Raz are trying to keep the greatest possible distance from the political philosophy of Hegel has acquired an almost symptomatic sig- nificance by now. -
"Suggestions for Further Reading." Censorship Moments: Reading Texts in the History of Censorship and Freedom of Expression
"Suggestions for Further Reading." Censorship Moments: Reading Texts in the History of Censorship and Freedom of Expression. Ed. Geoff Kemp. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015. 195–202. Textual Moments in the History of Political Thought. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 26 Sep. 2021. <>. Downloaded from Bloomsbury Collections, www.bloomsburycollections.com, 26 September 2021, 01:37 UTC. Copyright © Geoff Kemp and contributors 2015. You may share this work for non-commercial purposes only, provided you give attribution to the copyright holder and the publisher, and provide a link to the Creative Commons licence. Suggestions for Further Reading Given the substantial quantity of writing on most of the thinkers and many of the works covered in this volume, the following list is necessarily highly selective. For each work an attempt has been made to include a readily available reliable text in English (sometimes available online), in some cases a scholarly edition, and several works which help to contextualize the principal text and scholarly discussion of it. Plutarch’s Life of Cato Plutarch, ‘Marcus Cato’, in Plutarch’s Lives, accessible at www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/ text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a2008.01.0013 [accessed 18 May 2014]. Alan E. Astin, Cato the Censor (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1978). Arlene W. Saxonhouse, Free Speech and Athenian Democracy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). Robin Waterfield, Why Socrates Died: Dispelling the Myths (New York: Norton, 2009). Dana Villa, Socratic Citizenship (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001). Tacitus’s Annals Tacitus, The Annals, translated by A.J. Woodman (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2004). Shadi Bartsch, Actors in the Audience: Theatricality and Doublespeak from Nero to Hadrian (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998). -
Engaging with Insight of a Higher Order
ENGAGING WITH INSIGHT OF A HIGHER ORDER RECONCILING COMPLEXITY AND SIMPLEXITY THROUGH MEMORABLE METAPHOR ANTHONY JUDGE Introduction Higher orders of perfection? Appreciation of higher orders of insight Complementarity of manifestations of perfection Re-cognition of higher orders of insight through "new thinking" Representation, memorability and metaphor Questionable metaphors of perfectibility meriting challenge Greater insight through holiness? Engaging with higher orders of insight Antithesis and anathema: challenge of the "Satanic"? Potential of mirroring in engaging with greater insight References Introduction This is an exploration of the process of encountering insight of a higher order -- or seemingly so. Understood in its most general terms, this could be an insight which explains everything (a Theory of Everything), a strategy which solves all problems (the Ultimate Panacea), an exemplar understood as embodying a higher order (a Leader, a Genius, a Master, a Guru, a Professor), or a totally transformative aesthetic experience (perhaps a Revelation). Also to be considered are the implications of possible higher orders of artificial intelligence from supercomputers, as well as contact with superintelligent extraterrestrials. The assumption here is that the sense of higher order implies an extraordinary sense of perfection -- relative to one's current ordinary experience. How then to engage with the experience of perfection? How to "handle" it in practice? The challenge is of course charmingly illustrated by the encounter with an unusually attractive person -- an encounter which may mysteriously conflate all the above (as when falling in love). The exploration is of current relevance to the extent that there is a degree of hope, if not anticipation, with respect to the emergence of an Ultimate Plan, perhaps articulated by an extraordinarily charismatic individual, perhaps in the light of some ultimate Theory of Everything. -
The Use of Philosophers by the Supreme Court Neomi Raot
A Backdoor to Policy Making: The Use of Philosophers by the Supreme Court Neomi Raot The Supreme Court's decisions in Vacco v Quill' and Wash- ington v Glucksberg2 held that a state can ban assisted suicide without violating the Due Process or Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. In these high profile cases, six phi- losophers filed an amicus brief ("Philosophers'Brief') that argued for the recognition of a constitutional right to die.3 Although the brief was written by six of the most prominent American philoso- phers-Ronald Dworkin, Thomas Nagel, Robert Nozick, John Rawls, Thomas Scanlon, and Judith Jarvis Thomson-the Court made no mention of the brief in unanimously reaching the oppo- site conclusion.4 In light of the Court's recent failure to engage philosophical arguments, this Comment examines the conditions under which philosophy does and should affect judicial decision making. These questions are relevant in considering the proper role of the Court in controversial political questions and are central to a recent de- bate focusing on whether the law can still be considered an autonomous discipline that relies only on traditional legal sources. Scholars concerned with law and economics and critical legal studies have argued that the law is no longer autonomous, but rather that it does and should draw on many external sources in order to resolve legal disputes. Critics of this view have main- tained that legal reasoning is distinct from other disciplines, and that the law has and should maintain its own methods, conven- tions, and conclusions. This Comment follows the latter group of scholars, and ar- gues that the Court should, as it did in the right-to-die cases, stay clear of philosophy and base its decisions on history, precedent, and a recognition of the limits of judicial authority. -
The Concept of Law Revisited
Michigan Law Review Volume 94 Issue 6 1996 The Concept of Law Revisited Leslie Green Osgoode Hall Law School, York University Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr Part of the Public Law and Legal Theory Commons Recommended Citation Leslie Green, The Concept of Law Revisited, 94 MICH. L. REV. 1687 (1996). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol94/iss6/15 This Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Michigan Law Review at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Michigan Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. IBE CONCEPT OF LAW REVISITED Leslie Green* THE CONCEPT OF LAW. Second Edition. By H.L.A. Hart. With a Postscript edited by Penelope A. Bulloch and Joseph Raz. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1994. Pp. xii, 315. $26. Law is a social construction. It is a historically contingent fea ture of certain societies, one whose emergence is signaled by the rise of a systematic form of social control and elite domination. In one way it supersedes custom, in another it rests on it, for law is a system of primary social rules that direct and appraise behavior, together with secondary social rules that identify, change, and en force the primary rules. Law may be beneficial, but only in some contexts and always at a price, at the risk of grave injustice; our appropriate attitude to it is therefore one of caution rather than celebration. -
APA Newsletters
APA Newsletters Volume 06, Number 2 Spring 2007 NEWSLETTER ON PHILOSOPHY AND LAW FROM THE EDITOR, STEVEN SCALET ARTICLES BRIAN H. BIX “Joseph Raz and Conceptual Analysis” JULES L. COLEMAN “Law and Political Morality” TIMOTHY ENDICOTT “Interpretation, Jurisdiction, and the Authority of Law” KENNETH EINAR HIMMA “Revisiting Raz: Inclusive Positivism and the Concept of Authority” LIAM MURPHY “Razian Concepts” STEPHEN PERRY “Two Problems of Political Authority” © 2007 by The American Philosophical Association ISSN: 1067-9464 APA NEWSLETTER ON Philosophy and Law Steven Scalet, Editor Spring 2007 Volume 06, Number 2 relating to such theories. In particular, I will look at the role of conceptual analysis in legal theory, focusing on some recent FROM THE EDITOR work by Joseph Raz.1 I. Overview Edition in Tribute to Joseph Raz It was a commonplace in the history of jurisprudence to focus on the inquiry, what is law? It is worth taking a few moments Joseph Raz is professor at Columbia University Law School to consider the question more closely. and research faculty at Oxford University. His writings influence generations of scholars and his many students are now among First and foremost, there is a potential confusion (heightened 2 the leading scholars in philosophy of law. in English more than in other major languages ), as “law,” even if focused on matters jurisprudential (and not speaking of physical For this edition of the Newsletter we invited leading political laws, the laws of games, social conventions, etc.), can refer to and legal philosophers to analyze some aspect of Professor a number of different, if related, matters: most prominently, Raz’s ideas. -
Critical Guide to Mill's on Liberty
This page intentionally left blank MILL’S ON LIBERTY John Stuart Mill’s essay On Liberty, published in 1859, has had a powerful impact on philosophical and political debates ever since its first appearance. This volume of newly commissioned essays covers the whole range of problems raised in and by the essay, including the concept of liberty, the toleration of diversity, freedom of expression, the value of allowing “experiments in living,” the basis of individual liberty, multiculturalism, and the claims of minority cultural groups. Mill’s views have been fiercely contested, and they are at the center of many contemporary debates. The essays are by leading scholars, who systematically and eloquently explore Mill’s views from various per spectives. The volume will appeal to a wide range of readers including those interested in political philosophy and the history of ideas. c. l. ten is Professor of Philosophy at the National University of Singapore. His publications include Was Mill a Liberal? (2004) and Multiculturalism and the Value of Diversity (2004). cambridge critical guides Volumes published in the series thus far: Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit edited by dean moyar and michael quante Mill’s On Liberty edited by c. l. ten MILL’S On Liberty A Critical Guide edited by C. L. TEN National University of Singapore CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521873567 © Cambridge University Press 2008 This publication is in copyright. -
A Moral Right to Dissent? the Case of Civil Disobedience
A MORAL RIGHT TO DISSENT? THE CASE OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE A thesis submitted to the faculty of San Francisco State University In partial fulfillment of The Requirements for The Degree ?W\L -02T5 Master of Arts in Philosophy By Juan Sebastian Ospina San Francisco, California May 2016 CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL I certify that I have read A Moral Right to Dissent? The case of civil disobedience by Juan Sebastian Ospina, and that in my opinion this work meets the criteria for approving a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Master of Arts in Philosophy at San Francisco State University. Kevin Toh, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Philosophy Department Shelley Wilcox, Ph.D. Professor, Assistant Chair, Philosophy Department A MORAL RIGHT TO DISSENT? THE CASE OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE Juan Sebastian Ospina San Francisco, California May 2016 Joseph Raz has argued that in liberal states there is no moral right to disobedience. Raz claims that all states ought to be what he calls “liberal states,” which do not require a moral right to civil disobedience. Broadly, my focus in this paper is on describing how civil disobedience can be understood as a moral right to be included in the framework of political rights recognized in liberal states. I try to demonstrate that Raz’s argument proceeds from a limited understanding of political rights and political actions, and suggest that his conclusion is invalid or extremely exaggerated. I advance a tentative argument about the importance of this moral right to the political process of deliberative democracies, and of its inclusion in limited form among political participation rights. -
Positivism and the Inseparability of Law and Morals
\\server05\productn\N\NYU\83-4\NYU403.txt unknown Seq: 1 25-SEP-08 12:20 POSITIVISM AND THE INSEPARABILITY OF LAW AND MORALS LESLIE GREEN* H.L.A. Hart made a famous claim that legal positivism somehow involves a “sepa- ration of law and morals.” This Article seeks to clarify and assess this claim, con- tending that Hart’s separability thesis should not be confused with the social thesis, the sources thesis, or a methodological thesis about jurisprudence. In contrast, Hart’s separability thesis denies the existence of any necessary conceptual connec- tions between law and morality. That thesis, however, is false: There are many necessary connections between law and morality, some of them conceptually signif- icant. Among them is an important negative connection: Law is, of its nature, morally fallible and morally risky. Lon Fuller emphasized what he called the “internal morality of law,” the “morality that makes law possible.” This Article argues that Hart’s most important message is that there is also an immorality that law makes possible. Law’s nature is seen not only in its internal virtues, in legality, but also in its internal vices, in legalism. INTRODUCTION H.L.A. Hart’s Holmes Lecture gave new expression to the old idea that legal systems comprise positive law only, a thesis usually labeled “legal positivism.” Hart did this in two ways. First, he disen- tangled the idea from the independent and distracting projects of the imperative theory of law, the analytic study of legal language, and non-cognitivist moral philosophies. Hart’s second move was to offer a fresh characterization of the thesis. -
Three Themes from Raz
Osgoode Hall Law School of York University Osgoode Digital Commons Articles & Book Chapters Faculty Scholarship 2005 Three Themes from Raz Leslie Green Osgoode Hall Law School of York University Source Publication: Oxford Journal of Legal Studies. Volume 25, Issue 3 (2005), p. 503-524. Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/scholarly_works This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Green, Leslie. "Three Themes from Raz." Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 25.3 (2005): 503-524. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Osgoode Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles & Book Chapters by an authorized administrator of Osgoode Digital Commons. Three Themes from Raz† Leslie Green* The robust interest in analytic jurisprudence among legal philosophers is testament to the broad and deep influence of Joseph Raz. To find another legal theorist who has not only produced an indispensable body of work, but who taught and encouraged so many jurisprudents of the next generation, one has to go back to his forebear, H.L.A. Hart. But Raz’s influence is not just a matter of passing on the torch. Raz controverted so many of Hart’s central ideas that legal positivism, and in some respects even legal philosophy, will never be the same again. That rules are social practices, that every legal system has one rule of recognition, that the validity of law may depend on moral principles, that rights protect important choices, that there is a duty in fairness to obey the law—the hard times on which each of these Hartian ideas has fallen are due in no small part to the power of Raz’s criticisms, and Raz’s competing views are themselves now the subject of many discussions among lawyers, philosophers and political theorists.