scholarly journals Green Republicanism as a non-neutral and convivial politics

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Jorge Pinto
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Social Interdependence ◽  
Ecologically Sustainable ◽  
Do So

Green republicanism can be described as a subset of republican political theory that aims to promote human flourishing by ensuring a non-dominating and ecologically sustainable republic. It expands the republican idea of social interdependence with the natural world, and therefore requires promoting and protecting the autonomy within those interdependencies. As such, green republicanism will focus on moving away from the current situation of ecological unsustainability while protecting freedom as non-domination. In this article, I offer a green republican justification for non-neutrality while remaining non-perfectionist. Furthermore, I argue that participation and deliberation is essential in defining the concrete politics that should guide green republicanism. To do so I examine the idea of conviviality and argue that green republicanism is the political theory best placed to ensure the objective of conviviality: it allows individuals to confront their views and to cooperate, acknowledging the finitude of the planet’s natural resources.

Political Obligations and Jacobins and Utopians: The Political Theory of Fundamental Moral Reform

2006 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 457-460
Author(s):  
Duncan Ivison
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Moral Reform ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Political Obligations ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Do So

Political Obligations, George Klosko, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. x, 266.Jacobins and Utopians: The Political Theory of Fundamental Moral Reform, George Klosko, Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003, pp. xii, 200.Perhaps two of the most persistent and perplexing questions in political theory are: Why should I obey the law (or the state)? And, what is the relation between human perfection and politics? Can (or must) human beings realize their true nature through politics? Or is any such hope not only misplaced, but dangerous—one that is itself a problem that political theory must confront? In these two thoughtful books, George Klosko sets out to address them, drawing on a remarkably diverse range of material to do so.

Reply to Lowe

Politics ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-111
Author(s):  
Nicola Lacey ◽  
Elizabeth Frazer
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
The Political ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Human Flourishing

The concept ‘community’ is underspecified in the political theory literature – it must have a more specific reference than just some collectivity or some network of social relations. But attempts to specify what is specific about the relation of community are unsatisfactory. And references to ‘actual physical’ communities overlook the symbolic and imagined aspects of community, which furthermore destabilise putative communities as much as they stabilise them. Analysis of social relations and networks, and theories of what patterns of relations are conducive to human flourishing should deploy more precise sociological categories.

Science, Technology, and the Political

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gert Goeminne ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Technological Progress ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Radical Democracy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
The World ◽  
Central Notion ◽  
Do So

In this paper, I elaborate on the very political dimension of epistemology that is opened up by the radical change of focus initiated by constructivism: from science as knowledge to science as practice. In a first step, this brings me to claim that science is political in its own right, thereby drawing on Mouffe and Laclau’s framework of radical democracy and its central notion of antagonism to make explicit what is meant by ‘the political.’ Secondly, I begin to explore what this intrinsic political dimension of science might entail for democratic thought. I do so by connecting my preliminary explorations in the field of science with Andrew Feenberg’s elaborate frame of thought on the democratization of technology. Interestingly, Feenberg is one of the few thinkers who have connected questions of power and ideology, typically treated of within the field of political theory, with a constructivist approach to technological progress. In this sense, this paper can be seen as a first attempt to expand Feenberg’s framework of democratic rationalization from the world of technology to the world of science.

Aristotle on the Foundations of the State

1988 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Everson
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Individual Liberty ◽  
In Virtue Of

Aristotle's Politics shows an apparent tension between a recognition of the desirability of individual liberty and his claim that ‘none of the citizens belongs to himself but all belong to the state’. We can start to resolve that tension by considering Aristotle's doctrine of man as a political animal. Artistotle offers a particular account of the nature of man according to which his specifically human capacities cannot be realized outside of the state. This is not an account adopted arbitrarily for Aristotle's political theory but follows directly from his analysis of substances in the Physics. On Aristotle's account of human nature, man is essentially rational and virtuous and the political theory allows the rational and virtuous man to be as free as possible without intefering with others. Some are less rational and are subject to authority in virtue of this. We can see that Aristotle's theory has advantages over rights-based theories since Aristotle has an account of what constitutes human flourishing, without which one cannot found rights claims.

The Perfectionist Turn

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Den Uyl ◽  
Douglas Rasmussen
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Ethical Framework ◽  
Martha Nussbaum ◽  
Amartya Sen ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Ethical Thinking ◽  
Stephen Darwall ◽  
Do So

Contemporary political philosophy—especially the works of Martha Nussbaum, John Rawls, and Amartya Sen—has assumed it can in various ways separate itself from more comprehensive philosophical positions and frameworks, and much of contemporary ethics—especially the works of Gerald Gaus and Stephen Darwall—has assumed that ethics can be based on a legislative or juridical model. Den Uyl and Rasmussen challenge both these trends. They do so by amplifying an account of human flourishing, which they call “individualistic perfectionism,” that they presented in their earlier work, Norms of Liberty. They continue to challenge the assumption that a neo-Aristotelian ethical framework cannot support a liberal, non-perfectionist political theory by describing in greater detail the nature of the perfectionist ethical approach they utilized in their previous political theorizing. They show that individualistic perfectionism represents a major and powerful alternative to much contemporary ethical thinking.

On the Possibilities of a Political Theory of Algorithms

2020 ◽  
pp. 009059172095985
Author(s):  
Davide Panagia
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Negative Feedback ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Ontology ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
The World ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Effects Of Media ◽  
Modes Of Existence ◽  
Do So

This essay asks how we might articulate a political theory of algorithms. To do so, I propose a political ontology of the algorithm dispositif that elaborates how algorithms arrange the movement of energies in space and time, and how they do so automatically. This force of arrangement is what I refer to as the dispositional power of algorithms that I identify as a political physics of vital processes. The essay is divided into three sections. The first provides readers of Political Theory with a discussion of three notable works in the field of critical algorithm studies relevant to a political theory of algorithms. The subsequent sections of the essay elaborate an understanding of the political ontology of the algorithm dispositif by focusing (first) on the difference that a virtual ontology introduces to our political reflections and (second) on the cybernetic operation of negative feedback that I identify as foundational to understanding an algorithm’s political physics of vital processes. I conclude that any political theory engagement with technical media can’t simply rest on an epistemic analysis of the normative effects of media but must also pursue an investigation into a medium’s modes of existence in the world.

Politics and the Public in Rawls' Political Liberalism

1995 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Frazer ◽  
Nicola Lacey
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Critical Discussion ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Core ◽  
Recent Statement ◽  
Susan Moller Okin ◽  
Do So

This paper is a critical discussion of a number of related themes in John Rawls' Political Liberalism. First, it considers whether Rawls' recent statement of his position proceeds from an adequate methodology for political theory. In particular, it questions whether Rawls has succeeded in accommodating both universalist, analytic and particularist, interpretive aspects of the political theoretical enterprise. Second, it engages in critical analysis of the conceptions of the political and the public which lie at the core of Rawls' theory. In this part of the paper, an important though not exclusive focus will be certain questions raised by Susan Moller Okin and other feminist critics of Rawls about the internal consistency of his conception of justice. It is argued that Political Liberalism neither addresses these questions explicitly nor, contrary to Okin's view, provides implicit conceptual tools which could allow a sympathetic interpreter of Rawls to do so. The direction of the argument will suggest certain preconditions for the development of a more substantively and methodologically adequate approach to political theory.

Cultivating Human and Non-human Capabilities for Mutual Flourishing

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Breena Holland ◽  
Amy Linch
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
Political Justice ◽  
Capabilities Theory

The commitment to human flourishing in various traditions of political thought has been an important bridge between anthropocentrically conceived political theory and the more encompassing concerns of biocentrism and eco-centrism in environmental political theory. This chapter explores how this commitment has been developed and applied by scholars drawing on the theory of human capabilities—or “capabilities theory”—to imagine and construct an environmentally and ecologically just democratic politics. Treating the natural environment as both a component and condition of human flourishing, some have engaged capabilities theory without challenging anthropocentrism. Others have drawn on and expanded the theory to specify the non-human capabilities of animals, species, and the systems that comprise the natural world. Regarding non-human beings and ecosystems as having a dignity that makes them worthy of recognition as intrinsically valuable ends, these scholars use capabilities theory to include non-human beings and ecosystems as subjects of political justice.

scholarly journals Peace, Ecology, and Religion: Evolution and Buddhism’s Empathic Response

MANUSYA ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-35
Author(s):  
David Jones
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Peaceful Coexistence ◽  
Positive Approach ◽  
Ecologically Sustainable ◽  
Scientific Ideas ◽  
Ecological Thinking

It has become increasingly vital to secure some purchase on effecting the requisite changes in the Western Worldview to reintegrate humanity with the natural world. Only two possibilities exist for this reintegration: an affirmation of the evolutionary process and the development of human predispositions that intimately relate individuals to other lives. Such reintegration becomes possible only when humanity re-realizes its animality. This paper argues that these changes are vital to defining peaceful coexistence with not only animals and their environs, but within the human realm as well. By casting the idea of peace in the light of ecological thinking and the hope for creating sustainable environments, a more positive approach to defining peace can be made. Such a definition can lead to designing human habitats, food production systems, and the utilization of natural resources in more ecologically sustainable ways. Such designs and utilizations are known as “permaculture,” a position advocated in this paper because it focuses more on the active roles which humans take in their environments. Such a way of thinking moves away from the ethical environmentalism of Stewardship, which focuses on two emotions: cast in the negative as pity and in the positive as respect. In either emotion, peace is seen as transcendently given in absolute terms. The alternative of Buddhism is presented as a philosophical way out of the conundrum of stewardship. This alternative in itself is not new—these ideas have been in circulation for almost three decades—but what is distinctive in what is advocated is the synthesis of philosophical and scientific ideas such as intimacy, immanence, animality, evolution, empathy, and compassion seen dialectically vis-à-vis integrity, transcendence, stewardship, and pity and respect.

On the Will of the People: Notes on the Political “Theory” of Populism

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claus Offe
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
The Political ◽  
The People ◽  
National People ◽  
The Will

The “will of the (national) people” is the ubiquitously invoked reference unit of populist politics. The essay tries to demystify the notion that such will can be conceived of as a unique and unified substance deriving from collective ethnic identity. Arguably, all political theory is concerned with arguing for ways by which citizens can make e pluribus unum—for example, by coming to agree on procedures and institutions by which conflicts of interest and ideas can be settled according to standards of fairness. It is argued that populists in their political rhetoric and practice typically try to circumvent the burden of such argument and proof. Instead, they appeal to the notion of some preexisting existential unity of the people’s will, which they can redeem only through practices of repression and exclusion.

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