This is Political Philosophy is an accessible and well-balanced introduction to the main issues in political philosophy written by an author team from the fields of both philosophy and politics. This text connects issues at the core of political philosophy with current, live debates in policy, politics, and law and addresses different ideals of political organization, such as democracy, liberty, equality, justice, and happiness. Written with great clarity, This is Political Philosophy is accessible and engaging to those who have little or no prior knowledge of political philosophy and is…mehr
This is Political Philosophy is an accessible and well-balanced introduction to the main issues in political philosophy written by an author team from the fields of both philosophy and politics. This text connects issues at the core of political philosophy with current, live debates in policy, politics, and law and addresses different ideals of political organization, such as democracy, liberty, equality, justice, and happiness. Written with great clarity, This is Political Philosophy is accessible and engaging to those who have little or no prior knowledge of political philosophy and is supported with supplemental pedagogical and instructor material on the This Is Philosophy series site.
Alex Tuckness is a Professor at Iowa State University in the departments of Political Science and Philosophy. His research focuses on toleration, mercy, punishment, international humanitarianism, and public service ethics. He is the author of Locke and the Legislative Point of View (2002) and The Decline of Mercy in Public Life (with John Michael Parrish, 2014) as well as numerous articles. Clark Wolf is Professor at Iowa State University in the departments of Philosophy and Political Science. His research focuses on issues in the theory of justice, the philosophy of law, and bioethics. His work on law, intergenerational justice, political liberalism, intellectual property, reproductive ethics, and environmental ethics have appeared in Ethics and other major journals.
Inhaltsangabe
How to Use this Book xi
Preface xiii
Part I The Problem of Authority 1
1 Happiness 3
Doing Political Philosophy 4
Happiness, Welfare, and the Aims of Government 5
If You're Happy Do You Know It? 5
The Pursuit of Happiness 6
Whose happiness? 7
Can you measure pleasure? 8
Future happiness 10
Pleasure and pain 11
Is happiness fulfilling your desires? 12
Do the ends justify the means? 14
Nozick's Experience Machine 14
Happiness and virtue 15
The case of John Stuart Mill 17
Capabilities 18
Conflicts between liberty and happiness 22
Conflicts between equality and happiness 22
Happiness and Government 23
Happiness and Public Goods 24
Free Riding and Small Contributions 25
Philosophical objections 26
Should we evaluate political institutions according to their ability to make people happy? 27
References and Further Reading 28
Online Resources 30
2 Freedom 31
The Meaning of Freedom 34
The Fundamental Question 34
What Is Freedom? And Who Is Free? 35
Subjective and objective freedom 36
What counts as restraining freedom? 37
Freedom and consent 38
Republican liberty 39
Private freedom and public freedom 40
Negative and positive liberty 41
Paternalism, the Harm Principle, and Moralism 42
Paternalism 42
The harm principle 44
Moralism 48
Can (and should) we avoid moralism? 50
Conclusion 51
References and Further Reading 52
Online Resources 53
3 Equality 54
Introduction 55
How Unequal Are People in the United States? 56
Against Equality: A Politics of Procrustes? 57
Unequal Treatment and Discrimination 59
Equality as a Baseline? 61
Equality of Resources and Luck Egalitarianism 62
First objection: Disabilities 62
Second objection: Slavery of the talented 63
Third objection: Expensive tastes 63
Equality of Opportunity 64
Should we level down? 66
What Does Equality of Opportunity Require? 67
Inequalities in the Real World 68
Inequality or Deprivation? 71
Is Sufficiency Enough? 73
Complex Equality 73
Race, Gender, and the Social Construction of Inequalities 75
Affirmative Action 76
Conclusion 78
References and Further Reading 78
Online Resources 80
4 Justice 81
Justice: A Brief Introduction 82
Rawls's Theory of Justice 83
The original principle and the veil of ignorance 84
Rawls's two principles of justice 85
The Libertarian Critique: Individual Liberty Restricts Redistribution 87
Utilitarian Critique: An Alternative Rationale for Redistribution 91
Feminist Critique: The Public-Private Distinction and Power Relations 93
Communitarian Critique: Alternatives to Individualism 96
Cosmopolitan Critique: The Demands of Global Justice 97
