The Grounds of Institutional Moral Theory: On the Political Philosophy of Allen Buchanan

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Rainer Forst

In this paper, I discuss the conception of “institutional moral theory” that Allen Buchanan lays out in his work. I argue that it moves within a trilemma of grounding. The trilemma arises because the three routes to grounding we find in Buchanan’s works – the anthropological route appealing to human nature, the liberal route appealing to liberal values and the institutionalist route appealing to practice-immanent values – are mutually exclusive. But more than that, each horn of the trilemma encounters counterarguments from within Buchanan’s own thought, not only from the perspective of the other horns. Finally, I suggest a fourth alternative that refers to a notion of “justificatory responsibility” that Buchanan also suggests.

Author(s):  
Alessandra Silveira ◽  
José Gomes André ◽  

This paper includes the exam of a Ph.D thesis about James Madison’s political philosophy, as well as the answers presented by the candidate to several criticai observations. Various themes are considered, though always surrounding Madison’s work: the peculiar characteristics of his federalism, the relationship between the idea of human nature and the elaboration of political models, the political and constitutional controversies that Madison entangled with several figures from its time (namely Alexander Hamilton), the problem of “judicial review” and the place of “constitutionality control” taken from a reflexive and institutional point of view, and other similar themes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Marchetti

The statue of Glauco that the sea and the storms have disfigured so as to make its appearance more like a ferocious beast than a god, is the famous image with which Jean Jacques Rousseau, in the Discourse on the origin of inequality, questions himself on Human Nature, in a reflection that will have its purpose both in the political project of the Contract and in the pedagogical project of the Emilio. The image serves in fact to reiterate that that deterioration, that ugliness, is only external and that the statue (the man) has remained in its depths beautiful and good, since in him the feeling of piety, of his own and of his remains unchanged. dignity and the vocation to freedom of others. If this were not the case, there would be no possibility for political democracy and democratic education. The growing social inequalities, the artificialization of feelings and relationships due to technology, as well as the spread, after the pandemic, of a sort of mass "claustrophilia", a love for the closed, for one's own, with the consequent rejection of everything that comes from "outside", which is different, foreign or new, seems instead to give credit to Hobbes's thesis, namely that Human Nature is violent and aggressive and that man is always a wolf for the other man. However, it will be the task of the arts, sciences and, above all, of education, to demonstrate that, under the debris left by the salt, Glauco has remained good and that he can rediscover his true essence, the beauty of his original substance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 101-110
Author(s):  
Mateusz Falkowski

The article is devoted to the famous The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude by Étienne de La Boétie. The author considers the theoretical premises underlying the concept of “voluntary servitude”, juxtaposing them with two modern concepts of will developed by Descartes and Pascal. An important feature of La Boétie’s project is the political and therefore intersubjective – as opposed to the individualistic perspective of Descartes and Pascal – starting point. It is therefore situated against the background of, on the one hand, the historical evolution of early modern states (from feudal monarchies, through so-called Renaissance monarchies up to European absolutisms) and, on the other hand – of the political philosophy of Machiavelli and Hobbes.


1995 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Minogue

LIKE MANY PEOPLE, I FIND KARL POPPER BOTH FASCINATING and irritating. His vigour and lucidity are irresistible, and no one could complain that he fails to engage with the big questions. The problems begin when we consider his political thought. Some think him one of the great liberal philosophers of the century. I on the other hand, while being fascinated by The Open Society and its Enemies, am repelled by the grossness of its caricaturing of most of the thinkers it touches. The Poverty of Historicism is a marvellous text in the philosophy of the social sciences, but the idea of historicism is a straw man. The paradox seems to be that while there is a lot that refers to the political questions of the day, there is virtually nothing which takes up issues of political philosophy directly. The result is that he seems to me always to be on the wrong foot, and my problem is to discover why.


2016 ◽  
Vol 78 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-297
Author(s):  
Daniel Tanguay

I read Beiner's book as the intellectual biography of someone who is both a witness and actor in the contemporary renewal of political philosophy. This is why, in the reflections that follow, I focus not on his perspicacious analyses of the various authors treated in the book, but rather on the manner in which he understands the nature of this renewal and the future of the discipline itself. My reflections are based in a fundamental agreement with the definition of philosophy defended in this work. Political philosophy is a discipline that reflects on the ends of human life in order to rank and to judge them. This is why, according to Beiner, political philosophy has the ambition to present totalizing views of human nature (14).


1970 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 2-6
Author(s):  
Jose Ma Ybanez Tomacruz

The last four books of Plato’s THE REPUBLIC manifest fecundity, not simply in terms of books or pages but in terms of topics or themes. Plato in this opus, true to the form of a Socratic disciple, uses the method of the catena -chain. That is, one topic is nexated or interconnected to the other. This is also the reason why I have decided to delve into this paper not in terms of books but thematically, more specifically, those I consider to be major ones. These themes that I deem to be major ones contained in the four books are Plato’s notions of human nature and morality, socio-political philosophy, the process of education or learning, and then his epistemology. However, here I have decided to tackle only one, i.e., Plato’s notions of human nature and morality. Lastly, let it also be pointed out that all the expository work and critique shared here are all mine, and thus, for any error or shortcoming, the burden is solely mine and not of Plato nor of any other person. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bioethics.v1i2.9622 Bangladesh Journal of Bioethics 2010; 1(2): 2-6


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 87
Author(s):  
Hasan Jashari

In politics we will always have friends, opponents and outsiders. They constantly appear to us and at that moment when we have won one and as such has lost the support of the electorate. But political struggle goes on with other people who use the loss of one to take his post in the electorate. But even the opposition has its announced and not announced opponents. The purpose of this research is that through the theoretical and empirical elaboration of the topic we will collect data on the political power struggle between the four main political parties in Macedonia. By means of statistical data, previous surveys and surveys of 100 students we will analyze various indicators and will make their interpretation. Today, in our political and social level, we all work against one another. To work against others, strategies must be prepared to carry out self-proclaiming to the people, how to deface the opponent, how to elaborate, reveal discoveries about the shortcomings and weaknesses of the enemy camp. It is summed up in the goals - to have information that the other is corrupt, unable,so that we can attack. But the question is that working against others is it becoming a political philosophy and permanent strategy,is it becoming a business, but also a struggle without any moral boundaries, especially in Macedonia but also in Albania and Kosovo.


Author(s):  
James M. Glass

This article examines the relation between paranoia and political philosophy. It suggests that internal psychological conflict affects political reality through the force of belief systems and explains that belief derives from the complex interplay between the structuralization of the inner self, its affective and developmental foundations, and what the external world produces as data and sensation. It also contends that both realms of experience, the psychological internal and the political external, infuse each other and each depends on the other.


1958 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 470-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard B. White

To understand the political philosophy of Francis Bacon, or what he tried to do in political philosophy, one must make the clear-cut distinction he saw, I believe, between a provisional and a definitive political teaching. The latter, which he put chiefly in the New Atlantis and the De Sapientia Veterum, could be but imperfectly explored, because man could only build a final political teaching out of an as yet unconstructed natural philosophy. The former, on the other hand, could be known and conveyed with some precision. It was to serve the purpose of furnishing a temporary station for mankind, one that would be liveable and even comfortable as a dwelling place, and one that would at the same time, permit philosophy or science its own discovery of something better. Of the provisional political order, as Bacon saw it, there were three pillars: crown, church, and empire. The imperial pillar is certainly the most important to him of the three, and its construction required a greater boldness than the construction of either of the others.


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