Table Of Content

Contents Page: vii Dedication Page: v Acknowledgements Page: ix Introduction Page: 1 1 Political Philosophy and Politics Page: 15 Post-Politics and Political Philosophy Page: 15 The Rejection of Politics Page: 22 Post-Politics and Beyond Page: 31 2 Philosophy, Politics and Contestability Page: 36 Introduction Page: 36 The Project of Political Design Page: 37 Problems with the Thesis Page: 40 The Elusiveness of the Political Page: 50 Conclusion Page: 54 3 'Political Obligation' Page: 57 Introduction Page: 57 The 'Problem' Problem Page: 58 Transparency and Distributivity Page: 62 Obligations, Reasons, Motivations Page: 64 Justifying Obligations Page: 69 Conclusion Page: 75 4 Politics and the Limits of Pluralism Page: 79 Introduction Page: 79 Incommensurability and Pluralism Page: 81 Pluralism in Political Design Page: 94 Conclusion Page: 102 5 Moral Theory and Political Philosophy Page: 106 Introduction Page: 106 Ethical Inquiry Page: 108 Internalism and Smith's Antinomy Page: 110 Morality and Reasons Page: 119 Moral Theory and Political Philosophy Page: 129 6 Neutralising Politics Page: 137 Introduction Page: 137 Forms and Functions of Neutrality Page: 139 Insufficient Reason Page: 144 Politics Page: 153 Conclusion Page: 156 7 Rawls and Habermas: Liberalism versus Politics Page: 159 Introduction Page: 159 The Nature of the Political Conception Page: 161 Habermas Page: 166 Rawls Page: 171 Theory, Motivation and Reason Page: 178 Appendix: Gaus and Public Justification Page: 183 8 Political Philosophy Without Foundations? Page: 187 Introduction Page: 187 Rorty and Post-Philosophical Politics Page: 188 Gray and Post-Liberalism Page: 200 Conclusion Page: 208 Notes Page: 211 Bibliography Page: 237 Index Page: 247 A Page: 247 B Page: 247 C Page: 247 D Page: 247 E Page: 248 F Page: 248 G Page: 248 H Page: 249 I Page: 249 J Page: 249 K Page: 249 L Page: 250 M Page: 250 N Page: 250 O Page: 251 P Page: 251 Q Page: 252 R Page: 252 S Page: 253 T Page: 253 U Page: 253 V Page: 253 W Page: 253

Description:

Why do political philosophers why away from politics? After Politics: The Rejection of Politics in Contemporary Liberal Philosophy offers a challenging and original critique of liberalism, the dominant political philosophy of our time, tackling key issues like state legitimacy, value-pluralism, neutrality, the nature of politics, public reasons, and morality in politics. Analyzing major liberal theorists like Rawls, Habermas, Rorty, Barry, Gray, Raz, Larmore, Ackerman and others, Glen Newey argues that liberalism by-passes politics because it ignores or misunderstands human motivation, and elevates academic system-building over political realities of conflict and power.