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What is Wrong with Moralism?

Political Theory
Methods
Realism
Ethics
Normative Theory
P468
Keith Dowding
Australian National University
Keith Dowding
Australian National University
Sune Lægaard
Roskilde University

Abstract

Despite a vibrant and growing literature on the contrast between realism and moralism in normative political philosophy, the precise nature of this dichotomy remains unclear, as does its relationship to adjacent dichotomies such as feasibility versus infeasibility and ideal versus non-ideal theory. Is one of these dichotomies more fundamental than the others in some important sense? How do they relate to older dichotomies, such as traditional versus critical theory? Which, if any, depend on a distinctively political form of normativity? What can scholars working on each of these dichotomies contribute to the rest of the field? These and other questions will be addressed by both defenders and critics of our current realist turn.

Title Details
Distinctively Political Normativity: Problems and Possibilities View Paper Details
A prudential justification for political realism View Paper Details
In Defense of Progressive Political Change: Against Conservative Progress and Other Normative Troubles View Paper Details
Ideology Critique Without Moralism View Paper Details