Book contents
- On Justice
- On Justice
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Apologia for Justice
- Part I Political Philosophy
- 2 Political Philosophy as a Vocation: Seven Approaches
- 3 Political Philosophy as a Vocation: Seven Approaches, Continued
- 4 Global Thought: Political Philosophy in the World Society
- 5 Global Thought: World Society, Cultural Imperialism, White Ignorance
- 6 Half a Century after Malcolm X Came to Visit
- Part II Distributive Justice
- Part III The Grounds of Justice
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - Political Philosophy as a Vocation: Seven Approaches
from Part I - Political Philosophy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 September 2020
- On Justice
- On Justice
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Apologia for Justice
- Part I Political Philosophy
- 2 Political Philosophy as a Vocation: Seven Approaches
- 3 Political Philosophy as a Vocation: Seven Approaches, Continued
- 4 Global Thought: Political Philosophy in the World Society
- 5 Global Thought: World Society, Cultural Imperialism, White Ignorance
- 6 Half a Century after Malcolm X Came to Visit
- Part II Distributive Justice
- Part III The Grounds of Justice
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The desire to produce theory that affects practice makes political philosophy self-reflective. What kinds of insights do political philosophers aim to communicate, and to whom? What kinds of work should we do? What can we sensibly hope to achieve? Or, in short, what sort of vocation is political philosophy? Answers vary enormously. They include one derived from Max Weber (the political philosopher as “guidance counselor”); a Platonic one (“guide to knowledge”); a Marxist one (“obstetrician of the revolution”); a Habermasian view (“conservator of the discourse”); the view of the later Rawls (“theory-providing citizen-discussant”); the realist view developed by Raymond Guess (“historically-minded Ideologiekritiker”); as well as another type of realist view according to which the political philosopher (“seeker for moral truth”) plainly searches for the moral truth in their domain. This chapter discusses the first four of these conceptions.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- On JusticePhilosophy, History, Foundations, pp. 31 - 50Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020