scholarly journals Navigating by the North Star: The Role of the ‘Ideal’ in John Stuart Mill's View of ‘Utopian’ Schemes and the Possibilities of Social Transformation

Utilitas ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen McCabe
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Individual Property ◽  
Social Reforms ◽  
Contemporary Debate ◽  
Property Relations ◽  
The North ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Ideal

AbstractThe role of the ‘ideal’ in political philosophy is currently much discussed. These debates cast useful light on Mill's self-designation as ‘under the general designation of Socialist’. Considering Mill's assessment of potential property-relations on the grounds of their desirability, feasibility and ‘accessibility’ (disambiguated as ‘immediate-availability’, ‘eventual-availability’ and ‘conceivable-availability’) shows us not only how desirable and feasible he thought ‘utopian’ socialist schemes were, but which options we should implement. This, coupled with Mill's belief that a socialist ideal should guide social reforms (as the North Star guides mariners), reveals much more clearly the extent of his socialist commitments (even if he thought political economists would be concerned with forms of individual property for some time to come). Moreover, this framework for assessments of ‘ideal’ institutions makes a useful contribution to an ongoing contemporary debate.

Introduction

John Rawls ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 53-60
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Real World ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Political Practice ◽  
The World ◽  
Ideal Standards ◽  
Principles Of Justice ◽  
The Ideal

What is the relation between political theory and political practice? In what ways can political philosophy help people to address real injustices in the world? John Rawls argues that an important role of political philosophy is to identify the ideal standards of justice at which we should aim in political practice. Other philosophers challenge this approach, arguing that Rawls’s idealizations are not useful as a guide for action or, worse, that they are an impediment to addressing actual injustices in the world. They argue, instead, that political philosophy ought to be focused on theorizing about the elimination of existing injustice. Still others argue that principles of justice should be identified without any constraint concerning the possibility of implementation or regulation in the real world at all....

scholarly journals Efficiency in the Multinational Federal Republic

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Francois Gregoire
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Federal Republic ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Moral Principle ◽  
Government Interventions ◽  
Guiding Principle ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Moral Problems ◽  
The Ideal

The paper is divided in three sections. In the first section, I question the use of the statist redistributive paradigm in federalism. In the second section, I argue that efficiency is a moral principle and that it has a strong normative appeal, especially in contexts of diversity. I show that adopting efficiency as a guiding principle to think of the role of the state, especially in contexts of pluralism, as in MNF, allows us to consider the division of competences in a way that is yet unexplored in political philosophy. Furthermore, I argue that embracing efficiency allows us to avoid the moral problems that other moral approaches encounter, especially as I will defend a non-utilitarian conception of efficiency. That also allows me to show that if one opts for the view that pictures federalism as an efficiency maximizing enterprise, it does not lead to a libertarian conception of federalism. Finally, I try to briefly sketch a possible connection between the principle of efficiency and republican ideal of ‘non-domination’ (Pettit 2012). More specifically I suggest that the pursuit of ‘non-domination’ is totally compatible with the pursuit of efficiency in MNF. In other words, the federal government can interfere to resolve government failures at the sub-unit level, for instance externalities, without being or becoming a dominating agent. The ideal of non-domination supports the sort of strong government interventions defended by egalitarians without having to compromise on the autonomy of federated entities. The combination of efficiency and non-domination ends with a defense of asymmetrical federal arrangements, without sacrificing the equality that states ought to preserve.

scholarly journals Craft beer sector collaboration in North East Scotland: The role of individual success

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 263-274
Author(s):  
James Cunningham ◽  
Stephanie Barclay
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Shared Responsibility ◽  
Business Growth ◽  
Craft Beer ◽  
Community Embeddedness ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
To Come ◽  
Individual Success

Our understanding of craft brewing is beginning to grow and a key theme to emerge from this artistic and intrinsically creative sector is the dependence on collaboration between entrepreneurial agents. In the North East of Scotland, the growth in craft beer is also recognised to come from a deep rooted collaboration, as a reaction to and in resistance of large mainstream competition. However, one such enterprise, BrewDog, has grown to achieve global reach to rival that of the large-scale brewers the craft scene sought to challenge. We consider what this unprecedented success means for the remaining collaborators in the local craft beer sector. Our findings point to a shared optimism and possibility of achievement among the craft brewers, aided by BrewDog’s success. However, the nature of collaboration is anchored more in community embeddedness and shared responsibility for market development, rather than in business growth and success replication. While the craft scene acknowledges the inspirational success of ‘one of their own’, strategic drive comes from more localised relations and a desire for independence. This has implications not only for craft beer but also on how collaboration among entrepreneurs sustains in respond to success from within the group.

scholarly journals Liberation Pragmatism: Dussel and Dewey in Dialogue

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 420-439
Author(s):  
Alex Sager ◽  
Albert R. Spencer
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Social Reform ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Philosophical Theory ◽  
Social Reforms ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
Enrique Dussel

Enrique Dussel and John Dewey share commitments to philosophical theory and practice aimed at addressing human problems, democratic modes of inquiry, and progressive social reform, but also maintain productive differences in their fundamental starting point for political philosophy and their use of the social sciences. Dussel provides a corrective to Dewey’s Eurocentrism and to his tendency to underplay the challenges of incorporating marginalized populations by insisting that social and political philosophy begin from the perspective of the marginalized and excluded. Simultaneously, Dewey encourages a modest experimental and fallibilist approach to social transformation that promises more feasible social reforms than Dussel’s approach rooted in phenomenology and the critical social sciences.

Let's Go to the Moon: Science Fiction in the North Korean Children's Magazine Adong Munhak, 1956–1965

2014 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dafna Zur
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
The North ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
Bear Witness ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
The Way

Science fiction narratives appeared in the North Korean children's magazine Adong munhak between 1956 and 1965, and they bear witness to the significant Soviet influence in this formative period of the DPRK. Moving beyond questions of authenticity and imitation, however, this article locates the science fiction narrative within North Korean discourses on children's literature preoccupied with the role of fiction as both a reflection of the real and a projection of the imminent, utopian future. Through a close reading of science fiction narratives from this period, this article underscores the way in which science, technology, and the environment are implicated in North Korean political discourses of development, and points to the way in which these works resolve the inherent tension between the desirable and seemingly contradictory qualities of the ideal scientist—obedient servant of the collective and indefatigable questioner—to establish the child-scientist as the new protagonist of the DPRK.

scholarly journals Dangerous victimology: My lessons learned from Nils Christie

Temida ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-276
Author(s):  
Antony Pemberton
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Justice Motive ◽  
Work First ◽  
The Ideal

This article first discusses the key concepts of Nils Christie?s victimological-oriented work drawn from ?Conflicts as property? (1977) and ?The ideal victim? (1986). Using international criminal justice as an example, it demonstrates the enduring importance of Christie?s insights to victimology. Subsequently the paper offers a three-fold critique of Christie?s work. First, the stereotype of the ideal victim is confronted with the bodies of literature on the justice motive and the phenomenon of framing. Second, Christie?s views on the role of the state in ?Conflicts as Property? are discussed against the backdrop of libertarian and communitarian theories of political philosophy. Third, the notion that ?crime does not exist? is rebutted using a victimological perspective.

Lectures Du Cratyle, 1960–1990

1992 ◽  
Vol 19 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 333-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geneviève Clerico
Keyword(s):  
Levels Of Analysis ◽  
Contemporary Debate ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Status ◽  
Development Of Language ◽  
To Come ◽  
Scholarly Production ◽  
To Receive

Summary This study constitutes an attempt to come to grips with the vast scholarly production of the past thirty or so years concerning Plato’s Cratylus. It is noted that the analyses of this text either diverge from or complete each other, depending on whether the commentators subscribe to a dialectic and philosophical or a linguistic and language-oriented interpretation. It is maintained that it is the status accorded by Plato to language in this dialogue that is at the centre of the discussion. The contemporary debate deals with the role of the alphabet in the text, particular levels of analysis (etymology, relative motivation, onomatopoetics), the origin and development of language, and the clash between two theses: conventionalism vs naturalism. It is shown that the valuation of ‘Cratylism’, especially in the form currently found in French scholarship (e.g., Genette), extends an old tradition which tends to retain nothing but attempts at etymological or phonic interpretation. In fact, important developments according to which Socrates supports the conventionalist thesis and notes the impossibility to prove the ‘appropriateness of names’ deserve to receive their full significance.

Bureaucracy as Politics in action in Parks and recreation

2020 ◽  
Vol 100 (100) ◽  
pp. 161-178
Author(s):  
Holly Randell-Moon ◽  
Arthur J. Randell
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Municipal Government ◽  
Municipal Services ◽  
Television Show ◽  
Place Making ◽  
Parks And Recreation ◽  
The North ◽  
The Ideal

The North American television show Parks and Recreation focuses on the bureaucratic processes and practices of managing the Parks and Recreation Department for the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. Filmed in the mockumentary style of television comedies such as The Office, humour is derived from the discrepancy between the self-importance the main character, Leslie Knope, deputy director of the department, attaches to the department's work and the mundane realities of mid-level bureaucracy in municipal government. Nevertheless, in spite of this parodic discrepancy, the programme encourages viewers to sympathise with Leslie's perspective that bureaucracy is foundational to building inter-organisational relationships and stimulating community activism. By using the mockumentary conceit to focus on public administration, Parks and Recreation also reveals the role of bureaucracy in place-making and the attendant histories that are included and excluded in the foundation of settler autochthony. Because the ideal of public administration as the service of community is emphasised, Parks and Recreation is also able to position the opposite of this ideal – reduction of municipal services and bureaucratic non-caring – as mockable and problematic for community interests, particularly the needs of women and minority groups. Parks and Recreation highlights how bureaucracy is politics in action that can fundamentally shape the civic, private, and communal spaces of residents' lives.

‘An Indissoluble Mutual Destiny’: The North Staffordshire Potteries and the Limits of Regional Trade Associationalism

2005 ◽  
Vol 26 (12) ◽  
pp. 1831-1849 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Popp
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Districts ◽  
Industrial District ◽  
Social Variables ◽  
Regional Trade ◽  
Trade Associations ◽  
Formal Expression ◽  
The North ◽  
Typical Model ◽  
The Ideal

Focusing on the North Staffordshire Potteries in the later 19th century, this paper explores the role of formal trade associations in the governance of industrial districts. Contrary to the ‘ideal-typical’ model of the industrial district, we find that associationalism is not always a formal expression of an informal spirit of cooperation. However, the case also suggests that associations can be difficult to establish in large, complex industrial districts. In particular, the failure of associationalism in the Potteries is traced to interlinked economic, industrial and social variables.

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