What is the relationship between ethics and political theory? In particular, is the study of interpersonal and social morality continuous with inquiry into how we should lead our political lives? ...This article evaluates the call for firmer boundaries between moral and political thought that is central to recent realist critiques of analytical political theory. I identify, and reject, three versions of this position, which I term “discontinuity realism.” My critique draws attention to an important silence within discontinuity realism, concerning how its call to address politics from within relates to the feminist insight that politics is deeply intertwined with our personal choices and interpersonal relationships. The article goes on to defend an alternative “continuity” approach to the study of ethics and political theory. This approach better realizes the realist’s own aspiration for greater sensitivity to empirical detail in normative political theory.
The influence of anarchists such as Proudhon and Bakunin is apparent in Jean-Paul Sartres’ political writings, from his early works of the 1920s to Critique of Dialectical Reason, his largest ...political piece. Yet, scholarly debate overwhelmingly concludes that his political philosophy is a Marxist one. In this landmark study, William L. Remley sheds new light on the crucial role of anarchism in Sartre’s writing, arguing that it fundamentally underpins the body of his political work. Sartre’s political philosophy has been infrequently studied and neglected in recent years. Introducing newly translated material from his early oeuvre, as well as providing a fresh perspective on his colossal Critique of Dialectical Reason, this book is a timely re-invigoration of this topic
The question of legitimacy has taken central stage in the philosophical debates about authority. Discussions typically begin with the normative question of what it makes a practical authority ...legitimate. Here, Marmor argues the institutional conception of authority by explaining why authorities are essentially institutional in nature. He examines how this institutional conception bears on the question of legitimacy, drawing on the distinction between voluntary and nonvoluntary institutions. Finally, he answers some possible objections to the institutional conception, focusing on some of the normative aspects of authority-subject relations.
Digital (participatory and shareable) media are driving profound changes to contemporary politics. That includes, this article argues, important changes to the production, dissemination and reception ...of political ideas and ideologies. Such media have increased the number and political range of ‘ideological entrepreneurs’ promoting forms of political thought, while also giving rise to distinct genres of political rhetoric and communication. All of this is affecting how people come to be persuaded by and to identify with political ideas. In developing and justifying these claims, I draw on the Political Theory of Ideologies, Digital Media Studies and Rhetorical Political Analysis. I begin by showing how a populist ‘style’, induced by broadcast media, has been intensified by digital media, affecting ideological form and content. Next I consider, in detail, a particular example – YouTube – showing how it shapes political, ideological, communication. I then present a case-study of the UK-based political YouTuber Paul Joseph Watson. I show how the political ideology he propagates can be understood as a blend of Conservatism and Libertarianism, expressed in a Populist style, centred on the ‘revelation’ of political truths and on a promise of therapeutic benefits for followers. In a closing discussion I argue that this may be understood as a kind of ‘charismatic’ authority, and that such a political performance style is typical of these kinds of media today.
Can political realism be action-guiding? Ulaş, Luke
Critical review of international social and political philosophy,
06/2023, Letnik:
26, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Various political realists claim the superior 'action-guiding' qualities of their way of approaching normative political theory, as compared to 'liberal moralism'. This paper subjects that claim to ...critique. I first clarify the general idea of action-guidance, and identify two types of guidance that a political theory might try to offer - 'prescriptive action-guidance' and 'orienting action-guidance' - together with the conditions that must be met before we can understand such guidance as having been successfully offered. I then go on to argue that if we take realist understandings of political psychology seriously, then realist attempts to offer action-guidance appear to fail by realism's own lights. I demonstrate this by means of engagement with a variety of different realist theorists.
It is often assumed that we are only blameworthy for that over which we have control. In recent years, however, several philosophers have argued that we can be blameworthy for occurrences that appear ...to be outside our control, such as attitudes, beliefs and omissions. This has prompted the question of why control should be a condition on blameworthiness. This paper aims at defending the control condition by developing a new conception of blameworthiness: To be blameworthy, I argue, is most fundamentally to deserve to feel guilty. Being blamed by someone else is not necessarily harmful to the wrongdoer. The blame might not be expressed, or the wrongdoer might not care. But to blame oneself necessarily involves suffering. This conception of blameworthiness explains why the control condition should obtain: We are morally blameworthy for A only if A was (directly or indirectly) under our control because (a) to be blameworthy is to deserve to feel guilty, (b) to feel guilty is to suffer, and (c) one deserves to suffer for A only if A was under one's control.
This essay seeks to understand the complex response to the current Black Lives Matter protests against police violence, which pose deeper questions about the forms of politics that black citizens—who ...are experiencing a defining moment of racial terror in the United States in the twenty-first century—can and should pursue. When other citizens and state institutions betray a lack of care and concern for black suffering, which in turn makes it impossible for those wrongs to be redressed, is it fair to ask blacks to enact "appropriate" democratic politics? These questions are explored via a reading of Danielle Allen and Ralph Ellison's meditations on the problem of democratic loss and Hannah Arendt's critique of school desegregation battles in the 1960s. I suggest that there is a conceptual trap in romantic historical narratives of black activism (especially the civil rights movement) that recast peaceful acquiescence to loss as a form of democratic exemplarity.
Degrowth is establishing itself as a theory within the ecological and post-development scholarship. At the core of degrowth is a local-centric perspective, whereby small urban agglomerations are ...considered as the key actors of the political and economic system of an imagined post-consumerist and post-capitalist society. Degrowth proponents thus argue that the fundamental steps to achieve a truly democratic, socially just and ecological society should be taken at local level. However, in the degrowth theory a thorough debate about why the local level would be the most suitable spatial units to achieve degrowth is scarce. The importance of the small urban size appears to be axiomatic, rather than supported by substantive arguments. By engaging with non-mainstream strands of green political thought, this paper critically reflects upon the local-centred perspective at the core of the degrowth theory, identifying its main practical and theoretical shortcomings.
The return of society Dubet, François
European journal of social theory,
02/2021, Letnik:
24, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
This article is a plea for the idea of society in sociological theory. Even though the industrial national societies no longer exist, the successive crises that we have encountered show that we need ...a general concept to account for social life. Thus sociology should be enabled to remain a moral and political philosophy.
A partir del del gran “crack” económico del año 2008 se ha generado un intenso debate político y académico en torno a la situación de crisis del neoliberalismo y de su régimen político. Esta ...situación se presenta al mismo tiempo como una oportunidad para imaginar formas alternativas de organización de la vida en común. La democracia plebeya ha sido uno de los conceptos que han emergido desde la filosofía política para pensar formas políticas alternativas al orden actual. El presente artículo busca insertarse en medio de este debate, dando cuenta del carácter oligárquico de la democracia neoliberal, pero además contribuyendo a caracterizar el sujeto plebeyo a través de lo que denomino una condición plebeya, la que emerge desde la experiencia compartida de una vida precaria: una vida en común en los márgenes del orden económico, implicando exclusión económica, pero también una subordinación política.
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