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The Sources of Political Normativity: the Case for Instrumental and Epistemic Normativity in Political Realism
- Source :
- Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 2021, pp.1-17. ⟨10.1007/s10677-021-10243-y⟩, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, Springer Verlag, 2021, pp.1-17. ⟨10.1007/s10677-021-10243-y⟩
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2021.
-
Abstract
- This article argues that political realists have at least two strategies to provide distinctively political normative judgements that have nothing to do with morality. The first ground is instrumental normativity, which states that if we believe that something is a necessary means to a goal we have, we have a reason to do it. In politics, certain means are required by any ends we may intend to pursue. The second ground is epistemic normativity, stating that if something is (empirically) true, this gives us a reason to believe it. In politics, there are certain empirical regularities that ought to be acknowledged for what they are. Both sources are flawed. Instrumental normativity only requires coherence between attitudes and beliefs, and one can hang on to false beliefs to preserve attitudes incompatible with reality. I may desire to eschew power relations, and accordingly I may imagine politics to be like a camping trip. Epistemic normativity, on the other hand, operates critically, striking down existing normative claims. It shows us that politics is nothing like a camping trip, but it doesn’t tell us what we should do about it (beyond abandoning some false beliefs). We conclude by showing that if the two are taken together, they remedy each other’s flaws.
- Subjects :
- media_common.quotation_subject
Normativity
0603 philosophy, ethics and religion
Article
Reasons
Politics
Nothing
050602 political science & public administration
Sociology
Political philosophy
media_common
Sources of Normativity
Epistemic Normativity
05 social sciences
[SHS.PHIL]Humanities and Social Sciences/Philosophy
Instrumental Normativity
Political Realism
06 humanities and the arts
16. Peace & justice
Morality
[SHS.SCIPO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Political science
0506 political science
Epistemology
Philosophy
Philosophy of medicine
060302 philosophy
Normative
Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
Realism
Coherence (linguistics)
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15728447 and 13862820
- Volume :
- 25
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Ethical Theory and Moral Practice
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....b8ec9e15f20776da69928f8fd189bce0