Book section : Chapter
Doing political philosophy
- Abstract:
- This chapter draws together the author’s methodological writings to develop a model of theorizing that sees political philosophy as a normative enterprise that provides its audience with reasons for actions. Such reasons must make sense to their audience. They are subject to a feasibility constraint. Finally, there is no reason to believe they are timeless. This approach takes the political beliefs of lay people seriously, but is still open to radical proposals, grounded in the best reading of real people’s values and principles. This can be defended on epistemic grounds, if one is sceptical that political philosophers have some special insight such that they can set aside popular beliefs as mere opinion. It can also be defended in terms of the legitimacy of coercive social institutions, so that those subject to the coercive power of state institutions are given reasons to accept this coercion that make sense to them.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Access Document
- Files:
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 192.0KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198807834.003.0015
Authors
Contributors
+ Butt, D
- Institution:
- University of Oxford
- Division:
- SSD
- Department:
- Politics & Int Relations
- Role:
- Editor
- ORCID:
- 0000-0003-3883-8207
+ Fine, S
- Division:
- SSD
- Role:
- Editor
+ Stemplowska, Z
- Institution:
- University of Oxford
- Division:
- SSD
- Department:
- Politics & Int Relations
- Role:
- Editor
- ORCID:
- 0000-0002-5221-8103
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- Host title:
- Political Philosophy, Here and Now: Essays in Honour of David Miller
- Pages:
- 232-248
- Chapter number:
- 15
- Place of publication:
- Oxford / New York
- Publication date:
- 2022-06-08
- Edition:
- 1
- DOI:
- EISBN:
- 9780191845635
- ISBN-10:
- 019880783X
- ISBN-13:
- 9780198807834
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Subtype:
-
Chapter
- Pubs id:
-
2042776
- Local pid:
-
pubs:2042776
- Deposit date:
-
2025-07-04
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Oxford University Press
- Copyright date:
- 2022
- Rights statement:
- © Oxford University Press 2022.
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