|
Showing 1 - 8 of
8 matches in All Departments
The question, "Why should I obey the law?" introduces a
contemporary puzzle that is as old as philosophy itself. The puzzle
is especially troublesome if we think of cases in which breaking
the law is not otherwise wrongful, and in which the chances of
getting caught are negligible. Philosophers from Socrates to H.L.A.
Hart have struggled to give reasoned support to the idea that we do
have a general moral duty to obey the law but, more recently, the
greater number of learned voices has expressed doubt that there is
any such duty, at least as traditionally conceived. The thought
that there is no such duty poses a challenge to our ordinary
understanding of political authority and its legitimacy. In what
sense can political officials have a right to rule us if there is
no duty to obey the laws they lay down? Some thinkers, concluding
that a general duty to obey the law cannot be defended, have gone
so far as to embrace philosophical anarchism, the view that the
state is necessarily illegitimate. Others argue that the duty to
obey the law can be grounded on the idea of consent, or on
fairness, or on other ideas, such as community.
How is a legitimate state possible? Obedience, coercion, and intrusion are three ideas that seem inseparable from all government and seem to render state authority presumptively illegitimate. This book exposes three fallacies inspired by these ideas and in doing so challenges assumptions shared by liberals, libertarians, cultural conservatives, moderates, and Marxists. In three clear and tightly-argued essays William Edmundson dispels these fallacies and shows that living in a just state remains a worthy ideal. This is an important book for all philosophers, political scientists, and legal theorists as well as readers interested in the views of Rawls, Dworkin, and Nozick, many of whose central ideas are subjected to rigorous critique.
This book is the first detailed reconstruction of the late work of
John Rawls, who was perhaps the most influential philosopher of the
twentieth century. Rawls's 1971 treatise, A Theory of Justice,
stimulated an outpouring of commentary on 'justice-as-fairness,'
his conception of justice for an ideal, self-contained, modern
political society. Most of that commentary took Rawls to be
defending welfare-state capitalism as found in Western Europe and
the United States. Far less attention has been given to Rawls's
2001 book, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement. In the Restatement,
Rawls not only substantially reformulates the 'original position'
argument for the two principles of justice-as-fairness but also
repudiates capitalist regimes as possible embodiments. Edmundson
further develops Rawls's non-ideal theory, which guides us when we
find ourselves in a society that falls well short of justice.
An Introduction to Rights is a readable and accessible introduction
to the history, logic, moral implications and political tendencies
of the idea of rights. It is organized chronologically and
discusses important historical events such as the French and
American Revolutions. It treats a range of historical figures,
including Grotius, Paley, Hobbes, Locke, Bentham, Burke, Godwin,
Douglass, Mill and Hohfeld and relates the concept of rights to
contemporary debates such as consequentialism versus
contractualism. This thoroughly updated second edition includes a
new preface and expands the discussion of the surprising role that
slavery has played in the history of rights. It includes new
material on egalitarianism, distributive justice and what the
demand for equal rights means.
How is a legitimate state possible? Obedience, coercion and
intrusion are three ideas that seem inseparable from all government
and seem to render state authority presumptively illegitimate. This
book exposes three fallacies inspired by these ideas and in doing
so challenges assumptions shared by liberals, libertarians,
cultural conservatives, moderates and Marxists. In three clear and
tightly argued essays William Edmundson dispels these fallacies and
shows that living in a just state remains a worthy ideal. This is
an important book for all philosophers, political scientists and
legal theorists as well as other readers interested in the views of
Rawls, Dworkin and Nozick, many of whose central ideas are
subjected to rigorous critique.
The question, 'Why should I obey the law?' introduces a
contemporary puzzle that is as old as philosophy itself. The puzzle
is especially troublesome if we think of cases in which breaking
the law is not otherwise wrongful, and in which the chances of
getting caught are negligible. Philosophers from Socrates to H.L.A.
Hart have struggled to give reasoned support to the idea that we do
have a general moral duty to obey the law but, more recently, the
greater number of learned voices has expressed doubt that there is
any such duty, at least as traditionally conceived. The thought
that there is no such duty poses a challenge to our ordinary
understanding of political authority and its legitimacy. In what
sense can political officials have a right to rule us if there is
no duty to obey the laws they lay down? Some thinkers, concluding
that a general duty to obey the law cannot be defended, have gone
so far as to embrace philosophical anarchism, the view that the
state is necessarily illegitimate. Others argue that the duty to
obey the law can be grounded on the idea of consent, or on
fairness, or on other ideas, such as community.
This book is the first detailed reconstruction of the late work of
John Rawls, who was perhaps the most influential philosopher of the
twentieth century. Rawls's 1971 treatise, A Theory of Justice,
stimulated an outpouring of commentary on 'justice-as-fairness,'
his conception of justice for an ideal, self-contained, modern
political society. Most of that commentary took Rawls to be
defending welfare-state capitalism as found in Western Europe and
the United States. Far less attention has been given to Rawls's
2001 book, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement. In the Restatement,
Rawls not only substantially reformulates the 'original position'
argument for the two principles of justice-as-fairness but also
repudiates capitalist regimes as possible embodiments. Edmundson
further develops Rawls's non-ideal theory, which guides us when we
find ourselves in a society that falls well short of justice.
An Introduction to Rights is a readable and accessible introduction
to the history, logic, moral implications and political tendencies
of the idea of rights. It is organized chronologically and
discusses important historical events such as the French and
American Revolutions. It treats a range of historical figures,
including Grotius, Paley, Hobbes, Locke, Bentham, Burke, Godwin,
Douglass, Mill and Hohfeld and relates the concept of rights to
contemporary debates such as consequentialism versus
contractualism. This thoroughly updated second edition includes a
new preface and expands the discussion of the surprising role that
slavery has played in the history of rights. It includes new
material on egalitarianism, distributive justice and what the
demand for equal rights means.
|
You may like...
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
|