Political realism as ideology critique
Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 20 (3):334-348 (2017)
Abstract
This paper outlines an account of political realism as a form of ideology critique. Our focus is a defence of the normative edge of this critical-theoretic project against the common charge that there is a problematic trade-off between a theory’s groundedness in facts about the political status quo and its ability to consistently envisage radical departures from the status quo. To overcome that problem we combine insights from three distant corners of the philosophical landscape: theories of legitimacy by Bernard Williams and other realists, Frankfurt School-inspired Critical Theory, and recent analytic epistemological and metaphysical theories of cognitive bias, ideology, and social construction. The upshot is a novel account of realism as empirically-informed diagnosis- critique of social and political phenomena. This view rejects a sharp divide between descriptive and normative theory, and so is an alternative to the anti- empiricism of some approaches to Critical Theory as well as to the complacency towards existing power structures found within liberal realism, let alone mainstream normative political philosophy, liberal or otherwise.
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Archival date: 2016-09-30
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Philosophy and Real Politics.Geuss, Raymond
Alief and Belief.Gendler, Tamar Szabó
Political Liberalism.Rawls, J.
Realism in Political Theory.Galston, William
23. Anarchy, State and Utopia.Nozick, Robert
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Facts, Principles, and Politics.Rossi, Enzo
Differences of Difference.Jenkins, David
“What is to Be Done” When There is Nothing to Do?: Realism and Political Inequality.Miller, Caleb R.
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2016-09-30
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2016-09-30
Total views
386 ( #6,162 of 37,210 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
47 ( #7,564 of 37,210 )
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