Anti-Perfectionism and Rawlsian Liberalism

1995 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 248-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Caney
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Unity ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Major Argument

This article examines the justifications of anti-perfectionism given by John Rawls in his recent work Political Liberalism. Rawls, I argue, gives one major argument in defence of anti-perfectionism (what I shall call the ‘reasonableness among free and equal persons' argument) and two subsidiary arguments (what I shall call the ‘social unity’ argument and the ‘stability’ argument). None of these arguments, I claim, are persuasive. Rawls's most recent justification of anti-perfectionism is therefore unsuccessful.

scholarly journals The limits of conjecture: Political liberalism, counter-radicalisation and unreasonable religious views

Ethnicities ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Badano ◽  
Alasia Nuti
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Comprehensive Doctrine ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Theory Reasoning ◽  
The Stability

Originally proposed by John Rawls, the idea of reasoning from conjecture is popular among the proponents of political liberalism in normative political theory. Reasoning from conjecture consists in discussing with fellow citizens who are attracted to illiberal and antidemocratic ideas by focusing on their religious or otherwise comprehensive doctrines, attempting to convince them that such doctrines actually call for loyalty to liberal democracy. Our goal is to criticise reasoning from conjecture as a tool aimed at persuasion and, in turn, at improving the stability of liberal democratic institutions. To pursue this goal, we use as case study real-world efforts to counter-radicalise at-risk Muslim citizens, which, at first glance, reasoning from conjecture seems well-placed to contribute to. This case study helps us to argue that the supporters of reasoning from conjecture over-intellectualise opposition to liberal democracy and what societies can do to counter it. Specifically, they (i) underestimate how few members of society can effectively perform reasoning from conjecture; (ii) overlook that the burdens of judgement, a key notion for political liberals, highlight how dim the prospects of reasoning from conjecture are and (iii) do not pay attention to the causes of religious persons’ opposition to liberal democracy. However, not everything is lost for political liberals, provided that they redirect attention to different and under-researched resources contained in Rawls’s theory. In closing, we briefly explain how such resources are much better placed than reasoning from conjecture to provide guidance relative to counter-radicalisation in societies (i) populated by persons who do not generally hold anything close to a fully worked out and internally consistent comprehensive doctrine and (ii) where political institutions should take responsibility for at least part of the existing alienation from liberal democratic values.

Rawls, John (1921–2002)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Freeman
Keyword(s):  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
Justice As Fairness ◽  
Theory Of Justice ◽  
Main Work ◽  
Moral Conception ◽  
Social Unity ◽  
Original Argument ◽  
Principles Of Justice ◽  
The Stability

Rawls’ main work, A Theory of Justice (1971), presents a liberal, egalitarian, moral conception – ‘justice as fairness’ – designed to explicate and justify the institutions of a constitutional democracy. The two principles of justice outlined in this text affirm the priority of equal basic liberties over other political concerns, and require fair opportunities for all citizens, directing that inequalities in wealth and social positions maximally benefit the least advantaged. Rawls develops the idea of an impartial social contract to justify these principles: Free persons, equally situated and ignorant of their historical circumstances, would rationally agree to them in order to secure their equal status and independence, and to pursue freely their conceptions of the good. In Political Liberalism (1993), his other major text, Rawls revises his original argument for justice as fairness to make it more compatible with the pluralism of liberalism. He argues that, assuming that different philosophical, religious and ethical views are inevitable in liberal society, the most reasonable basis for social unity is a public conception of justice based in shared moral ideas, including citizens’ common comception of themselves as free and equal moral persons. The stability of this public conception of justice is provided by an overlapping consensus; all the reasonable comprehensible philosophical, religious and ethical views can endorse it, each for their own specific reasons.

Politischer und wirtschaftlicher Liberalismus

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Invisible Hand ◽  
Free Markets ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Us ◽  
Liberal Societies ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The 19Th Century

The metaphor of the ‘invisible hand’ not only characterises Smith’s understanding of competitive processes in free markets but also his theory of political liberalism. Smithʼs theory of economic and political liberalism is based on the assumption of autonomous processes in the development of morality, laws and the social order. These processes lead to a natural harmony of individual interests in politics and economics. However, Smith does not associate these ideas with the demand for a minimal state. Instead, he assigns the state a much more active role than is generally assumed. The analyses in this book of Smith’s reception by authors in the 19th century (in the US and Germany) and of his relevance for current analyses of political challenges show that the question of which conditions need to be fulfilled to ensure the stability of liberal societies is still a crucial one in political philosophy and science. With contributions by Michael Aßländer, Christel Fricke, Hendrik Hansen, Michael Hochgeschwender, Tobias Knobloch, Tim Kraski, Heinz D. Kurz, Birger Priddat, Bastian Ronge, Rolf Steltemeier, Richard Sturn

scholarly journals Justiça, Equidade e Liberalismo em Rawls

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Mateus Salvadori
Keyword(s):  
John Rawls ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
Political Justice ◽  
Theory Of Justice ◽  
Reasonable Pluralism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Interests ◽  
Comprehensive Doctrines ◽  
The Relationship

A teoria da justiça proposta por John Rawls investiga a estrutura básica da sociedade, tendo como base a justiça política, a justiça pública e a justiça distributiva. Rawls propõe uma teoria que representa uma alternativa ao utilitarismo, pois para o autor os direitos não deverão estar sujeitos à negociações políticas ou sujeitos ao cálculo de interesses sociais. É através do contrato social que Rawls busca apresentar a relação entre justiça, equidade e liberalismo político.Abstract: The theory of justice proposed by John Rawls investigates the basic structure of society, based on political justice, public justice and distributive justice. Rawls proposed a theory that is an alternative to utilitarianism, in which rights should not be subject to political negotiations or subject to calculation of social interests. It is through the social contract that Rawls seeks to present the relationship between justice, equity and political liberalism. Keywords: Rawls, liberty, equality, reasonable pluralism, comprehensive doctrines.

The identity policy and its effect in the stability of Middle East after 2010

2019 ◽  
pp. 434
Author(s):  
Ali Hussein Kadhim Alesammi
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Social Construct ◽  
Stability And Instability ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Stability ◽  
International Interactions ◽  
Regional Interests ◽  
Political Groups ◽  
Identity Policy

Since 2010 Middle East have many events or what they call "Arab spring events" which it result of overthrow governments and the rise of new political groups, all of this elements was resulting of many international and regional activities and making new regional and international axles, as well as the intersections of the different regional interests, therefore this research will try to study the stability and instability in the region as an independent variable not according to the neorealism or neoliberalism theories, but according to the constructivism theory which it base their assumptions on:  "In the international relations the non-physical structures of international interactions are determined by the identities of the players, which in turn determine the interests that determine the behavior of international players." So the research questions are: 1-What is the identity policy and haw affect in international relations? 2-How the social construct affect in international relations? 3-How the elite's identities for the main actors in the Middle East affect in the regional axles?  

Challenges for income generation methods in monopoly companies

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 54-64
Author(s):  
Ali Zurapov
Keyword(s):  
Market Competition ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Income Generation ◽  
Working Capital ◽  
Technical Base ◽  
Fundamental Goal ◽  
Urgent Task ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Commercial Organization

In conditions of market competition, the fundamental goal of any commercial organization is to obtain the greatest profit, which directly depends on the amount of income received and expenses incurred. Current paper discuses  about main source of development of the material and technical base of the enterprise, replenishment of its own working capital, ensuring the social needs of the companies. Main objectivity is income factor in the stability of the existence and progress of the monopoly companies. In this regard, the management of the income of the organization is currently quite an urgent task for every giant entrepreneur. The article reveals the essence, purpose, objectives and measures in the field of enterprise revenue management. On the example of a particular enterprise, a dynamic and structural analysis of its revenues is carried out.

Habermas on Rawls and the normative foundations of democracy

2021 ◽  
pp. 136843102098541
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Kędziora
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Veil Of Ignorance ◽  
Normative Foundation ◽  
Internal Relations ◽  
The Veil ◽  
Politics And Law ◽  
Normative Foundations

The debate between Jürgen Habermas and John Rawls concerns the question of how to do political philosophy under conditions of cultural pluralism, if the aim of political philosophy is to uncover the normative foundation of a modern liberal democracy. Rawls’s political liberalism tries to bypass the problem of pluralism, using the intellectual device of the veil of ignorance, and yet paradoxically at the same time it treats it as something given and as an arbiter of justification within the political conception of justice. Habermas argues that Rawls not only incorrectly operationalizes the moral point of view from which we discern what is just but also fails to capture the specificity of democracy which is given by internal relations between politics and law. This deprives Rawls’s political philosophy of the conceptual tools needed to articulate the normative foundation of democracy.

scholarly journals Comprehensive or Political Liberalism? The Impartial Spectator and the Justification of Political Principles

Utilitas ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Nir Ben-Moshe
Keyword(s):  
John Rawls ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Impartial Spectator ◽  
Alternative Framework ◽  
Principles Of Justice ◽  
Political Form ◽  
Political Principles

Abstract John Rawls raises three challenges – to which one can add a fourth challenge – to an impartial spectator account: (a) the impartial spectator is a utility-maximizing device that does not take seriously the distinction between persons; (b) the account does not guarantee that the principles of justice will be derived from it; (c) the notion of impartiality in the account is the wrong one, since it does not define impartiality from the standpoint of the litigants themselves; (d) the account would offer a comprehensive, rather than a political, form of liberalism. The narrow aim of the article is to demonstrate that Adam Smith's impartial spectator account can rise to Rawls's challenges. The broader aim is to demonstrate that the impartial spectator account offers the basis for a novel and alternative framework for developing principles of justice, and does so in the context of a political form of liberalism.

Two Models of Pluralism and Tolerance

1992 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Kymlicka
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Individual Autonomy ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
Group Rights ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Social Pluralism

AbstractIn his most recent work, John Rawls argues that political theory must recognize and accomodate the ‘fact of pluralism’, including the fact of religious diversity. He believes that the liberal commitment to individual rights provides the only feasible model for accomodating religious pluralism. In the paper, I discuss a second form of tolerance, based on group rights rather than individual rights. Drawing on historical examples, I argue that this is is also a feasible model for accomodating religious pluralism. While both models ensure tolerance between groups, only the former tolerates individual dissent within groups. To defend the individual rights model, therefore, liberals must appeal not only to the fact of social pluralism, but also to the value of individual autonomy. This may require abandoning Rawls’s belief that liberalism can and should be defended on purely ‘political’, rather than ‘comprehensive’ grounds.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document