The Situational Context <Emphasis Type="Italic">on the Nature of Political Philosophy</Emphasis> |
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Authors: | Email author" target="_blank">Yoram?LevyEmail author |
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Institution: | (1) FM – Political Science, Radboud University Nijmegen, Thomas van Aquinostraat 5.01.78, P.O. Box 9108, 6500 HK Nijmegen, The Netherlands |
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Abstract: | Rationalism in political philosophy is the view that politics should be governed by moral principles and that those principles
can and should be justified independently of the situations and circumstances that make up political reality. This traditional
view of political philosophy implies that the meaning of right political action is determined by moral principles the rational authority of which derives from abstract philosophical reasoning,
not from the situations and circumstances that are the substance of political reality. In this essay I argue that rationalist
moralities must presuppose the understanding of particular situations and circumstances for their meaningful and correct interpretation.
This means, I argue, that the rightness of political judgement and action is immanent in particular situations, not in abstract
moralities. And this, I argue, suggests a shift from the traditional view of political society as the embodiment of abstract
principles, towards a view of political society as the embodiment of the activity of situational judgement. A society worth hoping for, then, is one in which we can live in the light of our understanding
of the situations and circumstances that are the substance of everyday life, rather than in the shadow of abstract moralities.
Such a society would be sensitive to the particularities and complexities of political reality, but at the same time it does
not succumb to moral relativism and skepticism. |
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Keywords: | abstract pictures action deliberation judgement practical reasoning principles rationalism situations |
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