The Tyranny of the Ideal: Justice in a Diverse Society

ISBN-13: 9780691158808 / Angielski / Twarda / 2016 / 328 str.

Gaus, Gerald

Opis

In his provocative new book, The Tyranny of the Ideal, Gerald Gaus lays out a vision for how we should theorize about justice in a diverse society. Gaus shows how free and equal people, faced with intractable struggles and irreconcilable conflicts, might share a common moral life shaped by a just framework. He argues that if we are to take diversity seriously and if moral inquiry is sincere about shaping the world, then the pursuit of idealized and perfect theories of justice--essentially, the entire production of theories of justice that has dominated political philosophy for the past forty years--needs to change.Drawing on recent work in social science and philosophy, Gaus points to an important paradox: only those in a heterogeneous society--with its various religious, moral, and political perspectives--have a reasonable hope of understanding what an ideally just society would be like. However, due to its very nature, this world could never be collectively devoted to any single ideal. Gaus defends the moral constitution of this pluralistic, open society, where the very clash and disagreement of ideals spurs all to better understand what their personal ideals of justice happen to be.Presenting an original framework for how we should think about morality, The Tyranny of the Ideal rigorously analyzes a theory of ideal justice more suitable for contemporary times.

Recenzje

"This brilliant book is a rich and terrific read and makes an important and--to my knowledge--entirely new argument for an open society: that it is not just about freedom and nondomination but also about enhancing the chances of any society to figure out the global and fitting optimum of justice. It recasts the argument into a brand-new social-scientific mold, with a rigor and analytical clarity that is utterly admirable."--Hélène Landemore, Yale University

O autorze

Gerald Gaus is the James E. Rogers Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arizona. His books include The Order of Public Reason and Justificatory Liberalism.