3. Realism in Ethics and Politics: Bernard Williams, Political Theory, and the Critique of Morality

2018 ◽  
pp. 73-92
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Bernard Williams ◽  
Ethics And Politics

scholarly journals Macintyre on identity of ethics and politics

2006 ◽  
pp. 29-56
Author(s):  
Michal Sládecek
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
Ethical Life ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
Ethics And Politics

In first chapters of this article MacIntyre?s view of ethics is analyzed, together with his critics of liberalism as philosophical and political theory, as well as dominant ideological conception. In last chapters MacIntyre?s view of the relation between politics and ethics is considered, along with the critical review of his theoretical positions. Macintyre?s conception is regarded on the one hand as very broad, because the entire morality is identified with ethical life, while on the other hand it is regarded as too narrow since it excludes certain essential aspects of deliberation which refers to the sphere of individual rights, the relations between communities, as well as distribution of goods within the state.

La storia, la morale e la politica in Tucidide

2009 ◽  
pp. 31-60
Author(s):  
Giovanni De Grandis
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Fundamental Importance ◽  
Moral Pluralism ◽  
Valuable Contribution ◽  
Moral Ideals ◽  
Normative Standards ◽  
Incompatible Families ◽  
Ethics And Politics

- The paper analyses Thucydides's views on history, ethics and politics trying to highlight how they affect each other. Thucydides has a tragic conception of history, according to which, notwithstanding the presence of some constants, human vicissitudes are open to unpredictability and chance. This view is closely related to Thucydides moral outlook, which is interpreted as a version of moral pluralism that recognises two mutually incompatible families of values: those related with greatness and success, and those stemming from compassion and pity. Coming to politics, it is argued that Thucydides's most valuable contribution lies in his penetrating analysis of the dynamics of power and in particular in his understanding of the fundamental importance of the dialectic between stabilizing and chaotic factors. Political thought should take account of those factors and that means that historical and empirical considerations should enter political theory no later than moral ideals and normative standards.

Spatialities of Power and Postmodern Ethics—Rethinking Geopolitical Encounters

1997 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Slater
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
The West ◽  
Global Understanding ◽  
Postmodern Ethics ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Ethics And Politics

There is still a tendency in contemporary currents of political theory to marginalize the spatialities of power. In this paper I argue that the development of a critical geopolitical imagination can help to illuminate issues of inside and outside, the transgression of borders, and the subversion of sovereignties, and that these issues are vital to our global understanding of democracy, justice, and ethics. I consider three interrelated questions. First, I emphasize the importance of situating the discussion of justice, equality, and power in a context which is not only transnational but in which a consideration of the geopolitics of power over other non-Western societies is also in the foreground. Second, I examine critically those treatments of ethics and politics that tend to isolate the national from the international, especially when the West is represented as a self-contained entity. Third, in the context of recent discussions on politics and the postmodern, I explore aspects of the ethics of difference and intersubjectivity. This is done against a general background of West–non-West relations, and the impact of geopolitical encounters.

Normativism and realism within contemporary democratic constitutionalism

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 661-681 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerio Fabbrizi
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Constitutional Theory ◽  
Bernard Williams ◽  
Political Realism ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Realist Perspective ◽  
Realist Conception

The renewed interest on political realism can offer a new reading of the traditional dichotomy between normative and realist conception of constitutionalism. The purpose of this article is to analyse this renewed discussion, especially by focusing on the relationship between “political realism” and “political constitutionalism,” in the light of some theorists and authors—such as Richard Bellamy and Jeremy Waldron. After a brief introduction in which political realism will be discussed, especially through Bernard Williams’ reinterpretation, the article proposes a rereading of democratic constitutionalism from the classical dichotomy between normativism and realism in political theory. The focus will be set on three key issues: 1. Richard Bellamy’s constitutional theory in a realist perspective; 2. An insight of legal constitutionalism under a normative banner; 3. A brief conclusion in which the risks of a majoritarian and populist constitutionalism will be discussed.

scholarly journals From Practice to Principle and Back: Applying a New Realist Method to the European Union’s Democratic Deficit

2017 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 339-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Pieter Beetz
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Democratic Deficit ◽  
Bernard Williams ◽  
Step Method ◽  
Realist Theory ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Political Theories ◽  
Sensitive Phase ◽  
European Union Studies

The prospect of a Brexit illustrates that the European Union’s legitimacy deficit can have far-reaching political consequences. In normative political theory, realists take a keen interest in questions of legitimacy. Building on Bernard Williams’ realist writings, I propose a two-step method of normative political theorization. Each step contains both a practice-sensitive phase and a practice-insensitive phase. First, the conceptualization of a norm should draw on conceptual resources available to agents within their historical circumstances. Second, the prescriptions that follow from this norm should take into account whether political order can be maintained. Applying this method to the European Union’s democratic deficit yields, first, based on public opinion research, the norm of European deep diversity and, second, a set of prescriptions for a demoicratic confederacy. Thereby, I demonstrate that this realist method is able to yield political theories distinct from other philosophical approaches. Moreover, I contribute a realist theory to the normative literature in European Union studies.

Classical Ethics and Postmodern Critique: Political Philosophy in Václav Havel and Jan Patočka

1999 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward F. Findlay
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The West ◽  
Vaclav Havel ◽  
Phenomenological Interpretation ◽  
Ethics And Politics

This article examines the ties between the work of Václav Havel and his dissident mentor Jan Patočka. Havel's political theory consists largely of an evocative, literary reformulation of a number of themes developed by Patočka, the student of Husserl and Heidegger generally recognized as the most significant Czech philosopher of the century. Insofar as Patočka's work continues to be ignored in the West, the intuitively appealing essays of Havel will themselves fail to be fully understood. This study offers an analysis of Havel's debt to Patočka, as well as an explication of the latter's political thought. With Patočka's phenomenological interpretation of ancient and contemporary thought, of Socrates and Heidegger, a bridge is built between the classical and the postmodern that seeks to ground ethics and politics without recourse to the foundationalism of metaphysical accounts of reality.

scholarly journals Politics and the limits of philosophy: Bernard Williams on realism in political theory

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-101
Author(s):  
Ivan Mladenovic
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Great Influence ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Bernard Williams ◽  
Political Realism ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
Normative Political Theory

Bernard Williams?s papers collected in the volume In the Beginning Was the Deed: Realism and Moralism in Political Argument had a great influence on contemporary normative political theory. Williams not only revived the topic of realism in political theory, but also defended the approach of political realism that he contrasts to the approach of political moralism. This paper will focus on the distinction between political realism and political moralism. Moreover, the question of legitimacy will be considered in the light of this distinction. After examination of the distinction between political realism and political moralism, we will be in a position to address the main question that this paper aims to answer: does political realism set any limits on political philosophy?

ON REALIST LEGITIMACY

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian Wendt
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Bernard Williams ◽  
Theories Of Justice ◽  
The Right ◽  
Realist Perspective ◽  
Distinct Approach

Abstract:In the last ten or fifteen years, realism has emerged as a distinct approach in political theory. Realists are skeptical about the merits of abstract theories of justice. They regard peace, order, and stability as the primary goals of politics. One of the more concrete aims of realists is to develop a realist perspective on legitimacy. I argue that realist accounts of legitimacy are unconvincing, because they do not solve what I call the “puzzle of legitimacy”: the puzzle of how some persons can have the right to rule over others, given that all persons are equals. I focus on the realist accounts of legitimacy developed by Bernard Williams and John Horton.

scholarly journals Genealogical Solutions to the Problem of Critical Distance: Political Theory, Contextualism and the case of Punishment in Transitional Scenarios

Res Publica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Testini
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Hybrid Method ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Critical Distance ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Bernard Williams ◽  
Historical Inquiry ◽  
Specific Kind ◽  
Action Guidance

AbstractIn this paper, I argue that one approach to normative political theory, namely contextualism, can benefit from a specific kind of historical inquiry, namely genealogy, because the latter provides a solution to a deep-seated problem for the former. This problem consists in a lack of critical distance and originates from the justificatory role that contextualist approaches attribute to contextual facts. I compare two approaches to genealogical reconstruction, namely the historiographical method pioneered by Foucault and the hybrid method of pragmatic genealogy as practiced by Bernard Williams, arguing that they both ensure an increase in critical distance while preserving contextualism’s distinctiveness. I also show, however, that only the latter provides normative action-guidance and can thus assist the contextualist theorist in the crucial task of discerning how far certain contextual facts deserve their justificatory role. I prove this point by showing how a pragmatic genealogy of the practice of punishment can inform the contextualist’s reflection about the role this practice should play in a transitional scenario, i.e. in the set of circumstances societies go through in the aftermath of large-scale violence and human rights violations.

Testing pragmatic genealogy in political theory: The curious case of John Rawls

2020 ◽  
pp. 147488512090977
Author(s):  
Francesco Testini
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Alternative Strategy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Bernard Williams ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Democratic Societies ◽  
Basic Ideas ◽  
Miranda Fricker

Starting from the ‘Dewey Lectures’, Rawls presents his conception of justice within a contextualist framework, as an elaboration of the basic ideas embedded in the political culture of liberal-democratic societies. But how are these basic ideas to be justified? In this article, I reconstruct and criticize Rawls’s strategy to answer this question. I explore an alternative strategy, consisting of a genealogical argument of a pragmatic kind – the kind of argument provided by authors like Bernard Williams, Edward Craig and Miranda Fricker. I outline this genealogical argument drawing on Rawls’s reconstruction of the origins of liberalism. Then, I clarify the conditions under which this kind of argument maintains vindicatory power. I claim that the argument satisfies these conditions and that pragmatic genealogy can thus partially vindicate the basic ideas of liberal-democratic societies.

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