Emancipatory Idealism: A Utopian Vision for Global Justice

This paper seeks to develop a utopian vision for global justice that moves beyond a traditional conception of a state-centric international legal system and towards a utopian vision that focuses on humanity. Such an endeavour is achieved by exploring the concept emancipatory idealism. Emancipatory idealists argue that the protection of individuals and groups from modes of oppression, such as war or crimes against humanity, is of paramount importance for the sake of civilisational development, be it on a technological or societal level. Ultimately, emancipatory idealism is an umbrella concept that provides a justification as to why other idealist concepts such as human rights and human dignity should be sought after. Using the works of Critical Theorists such as Max Horkheimer and Theodore Adorno, Hegel, Phillip Allot and Anne Peters the substance of emancipatory idealism is explored and then analysed in order to understand its place in the context of global justice. In particular John Rawls’ work on global justice is analysed in order to support the ‘realistic utopia’ concept developed in his text ‘The Law of Peoples’. Thus, this paper seeks to show how the realisation of Rawls’ eight principles helps to achieve civilisational development, which is a central concern for emancipatory idealists. Furthermore, it strengthens the importance of Rawls’ ‘original position’ concept, often referred to as the veil of ignorance, for the sake of creating an international society of free, equal and moral people. Therefore this paper shall attempt to provide support for a Rawls’ realistic utopian vision for global justice.