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Over the past 10 to 15 years, methodological questions have taken centre stage in political philosophy. Political philosophers working broadly in the Rawlsian tradition have debated the strengths and weaknesses of ideal theory vis-à-vis so-called non-ideal theory. Central questions at the heart of this debate are: how detached from reality should normative theorizing be? Of what help is an ideal normative theory like Rawls’ theory of justice under conditions of non-compliance? Can an ideal normative theory be truly action-guiding? However, ideal and non-ideal theory are not the only options available. Some political philosophers like G. A. Cohen and David Estlund have argued for the importance of “utopian” normative theorizing (i.e. truly ideal theory in contrast to Rawls’ “realistic” ideal theory). At the other end of the spectrum, the tradition of political realism, represented today among others by Raymond Geuss, believes all normative theorizing to be futile and at worst ideological. Feminist and critical race philosophers like Sally Haslanger and Charles Mills have presented their own approaches to social critique.
In this seminar, we will begin with Rawls and then move on to examine different approaches that have been developed – at least partly – in response to Rawlsian ideal theory, namely “utopian” normative theory (G. A. Cohen), non-ideal theory both in the sense of partial compliance theory (Tommie Shelby) and “transitional” theory (Amartya Sen, Ingrid Robeyns), non-ideal theory/critical theory (Charles Mills, Sally Haslanger) and political realism (Raymond Geuss). Our aim will be to understand and evaluate the methodological differences between them: where do these approaches complement one another? Where do we find real disagreements? What explains those disagreements? And, ultimately, what approach do we find most convincing and why?
UPDATE on the format: we’ll be working a lot in small groups in this course (one week discussion in the group, the other week we’ll meet with the whole class) which is something to keep in mind when considering taking this course.
In case you’re interested in participating in this course, please take note of the following: there is only one “ÜWP” place in this course for which eligible students can apply via Agnes. All other places are reserved for philosophy students at HU. For philosophy students the prerequisites for participating in this course are (1) attendance at the first three sessions of this course (20 April, 27 April and 4 May) and (2) the submission of a response paper before the sessions on 20 April and 27 April (i.e. of two response papers in total). The response papers should be between 650 to 800 words each and will not be marked. More information can be found on the syllabus on Moodle. |
