Navigating Contextualism

Abstract

Normative political theory aims at evaluating and making prescriptions for what is just, legitimate or a good policy. The more political theory aims to be action guiding and/or address specific cases, e.g. cases such as those discussed in debates about multiculturalism, politics and religion, or migration, the more the relation between normative political theory and descriptive facts about the context of these cases becomes pressing. Contextualism in normative political theory denotes a range of views according to which facts about the context play a crucial role in the arguments made in normative political theory. There are different forms of contextualism according to which role they take context to play. At the same time, there are a number of potential problems facing contextualism, including whether it risks being conservative or committing naturalistic fallacies of deriving ‘ought’ from ‘is’. The panel seeks to address both the issue of what forms of contextualism are appropriate in normative political theory and to discuss the challenges and pitfalls facing contextualist normative theory.