Democratic IndividualityThis ambitious and sweeping book presents a powerful argument against moral relativism and in favor of the objectivity of a theory of democratic individuality. Unlike much recent work in this field, the book does not simply adumbrate such a view. Rather, it develops the parallels between various versions of scientific and moral realism, and then reinterprets the history and internal logic of democratic theory, maintaining, for example, that the abolition of slavery represents genuine moral progress. The book also recasts the clashes between Marxist and Weberian, radical and liberal sociologies in the light of these moral claims, and sketches the institutions of a radical democracy. |
Contents
A common good and justice in war | 21 |
2 A common good and ethical discovery | 26 |
3 Aristotles two types of just war | 34 |
4 The objectivity of Aristotles political and moral theory | 38 |
5 Montesquieus response to Aristotle on slavery and war | 44 |
6 Hegels theory of freedom | 52 |
7 Hegels two kinds of just war | 56 |
8 Liberalism Marxism and democratic internationalism | 62 |
2 The historical dialectic of conflicting moral standards | 244 |
a different kind of moral progress | 247 |
4 Mill Rawls and Marxian communism | 253 |
5 Liberal and radical accounts of moral progress | 256 |
6 Two ethical models of Marxian historical theory | 258 |
The Aristotelian lineage of Marxs eudaemonism | 263 |
1 Eudaemonism and alienation | 264 |
2 A theory of the self | 271 |
The capacity for moral personality and the ambiguities of liberalism | 70 |
2 Berlin on freedom | 71 |
3 Popper on moral advance | 74 |
4 Barber on democracy reasonable compromise and truth | 76 |
5 Rawls on slavery and democratic autonomy | 79 |
6 Taylor on history and moral personality | 84 |
7 Fishkin and metaethical consensus | 85 |
Finnis Hampshire and Putnam | 89 |
Wiggins on deliberation | 93 |
10 Walzer on relativism and democracy | 94 |
11 Harmans inadvertent moral explanation | 99 |
12 Why internalism fails | 104 |
Empiricism neoKantianism and realism in science and ethics | 108 |
1 A realist alternative | 109 |
2 The justification and decline of positivism | 114 |
3 The eccentricities of ethical empiricism | 123 |
4 Theory saturatedness revolutionary change and neoKantianism | 125 |
5 Realism as theorydependent insight into the world | 130 |
6 Scientific epistemology as a guide to semantics | 136 |
7 Semanticsgenerated moral relativisms | 138 |
8 Theoretical progress and semantic complexity | 142 |
NeoKantianism and moral realism | 149 |
a mimicking of realism | 150 |
2 The uneven development of branches of knowledge objection | 156 |
3 The arbitrary historical continuities criticism | 157 |
4 The dissolution of theory in practice objection | 158 |
5 The Western relativity of progress objection | 160 |
6 The nonreplicability of ways of life argument | 165 |
7 Individual moral view quasirealism | 167 |
8 Pure quasirealism | 170 |
9 The slenderness of realism objection | 172 |
10 Putnams criticisms of realism and moral realism | 173 |
11 Is reference indeterminate? | 177 |
12 Causality and borderline cases | 183 |
13 Value presuppositions versus moral objectivity | 188 |
Democracy and individuality in modern social theory | 195 |
Historical materialism and justice | 197 |
2 Three interpretations of moral epistemology | 199 |
3 What can Marxists fairly say about injustices? | 206 |
4 Marxs and Engelss metaethical ambiguities | 209 |
5 Engelss and Marxs critiques of Proudhons eternal justice | 213 |
6 Utilitarianism contractarianism and glaring social inequalities | 220 |
7 Scientific realism and moral realism | 222 |
why injustice needs to advertise | 229 |
9 The indeterminate reference of Marxian exploitation | 235 |
Two kinds of historical progress | 239 |
3 Deliberation and democratic internationalism | 283 |
4 Scientific and ethical realism in Aristotles and Marxs economics | 288 |
5 Millers criticisms of moral objectivity | 292 |
Radical democracy and individuality | 305 |
2 Socialist concessions to class status and political hierarchy | 309 |
3 How democratic is radical democracy? | 316 |
4 Extreme democracy as a challenge to Chinese status and political hierarchy | 331 |
5 How radical is radical democracy? | 334 |
6 Democracy as a cluster property | 345 |
The Protestant Ethic and Marxian theory | 348 |
2 Does neoKantianism cohere with liberal social theory? | 352 |
3 Can a Marxian accept The Protestant Ethics basic claim? | 355 |
4 Can Weber account for Protestant radicalism? | 361 |
5 Moral explanation in The Protestant Ethic | 365 |
6 Is The Protestant Ethic liberal? | 369 |
Nationalism and the dangers of predatory liberalism | 375 |
2 Webers four nationalisms | 377 |
3 Webers social theory and contemporary politics | 382 |
4 Can Weber explain internationalism? | 388 |
5 Weberian tensions in Lenins theory | 394 |
the Soviet and Weimar revolutions | 397 |
Democracy and status | 402 |
2 Eugenic theory and being German | 406 |
3 Elective affinities and academic racism | 407 |
4 The American South as test case | 413 |
5 A Marxian critique of Weber | 415 |
6 Southern multiracial movements | 419 |
Bureaucracy socialism and a common good | 423 |
2 How radicals become saints | 426 |
3 Are Weberian politicians responsible? | 430 |
4 Antiradical ideology and todays social science | 434 |
5 Webers rejection of the Russian Revolution | 440 |
6 Is bureaucratic domination necessary? | 445 |
7 Radical democratic rejoinders | 449 |
Levels of ethical disagreement and the controversy between neoKantianism and realism | 451 |
1 The complexity of core standards | 452 |
2 Empirical conflicts | 453 |
3 Moral controversies | 454 |
4 Hard cases and ethical theory | 456 |
6 Diverse subsets of ethical argument | 458 |
7 Core standards and Science as a Vocation | 459 |
8 Individuality and Weberian liberalism | 464 |
the project of democratic individuality | 467 |
| 472 | |
| 493 | |
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Common terms and phrases
argument Aristotelian Aristotle Aristotle's Bolsheviks capacity for moral capitalism capitalist causal Chapter claims clashes common communist complex conception conflict contemporary contends contrast criticism critique cultural defend democracy democratic democratic internationalism dialectical distinction diverse economic egalitarian emphasized empirical empiricism empiricist epistemological ethical eudaemonism eudaemonist explanation exploitation fact freedom Further G. A. Cohen German Gilbert Harman Hegel historical human capacities ical ideology important individuality insight insisted instance interests internal judgments justice justify Lenin liberal and radical Marx Marx and Engels Marx's Marxian Marxian theory Marxism ment metaethical Miller modern Montesquieu moral objectivity moral personality moral realism moral theory movements natural Nazism neo-Kantian notion oppression particular philosophical policies political theory proletarian Putnam Rawls Rawlsian recognize reductionism regimes relativism relativist revolution revolutionary role scientific slave slavery social theory socialist society sophisticated standards status stresses suggests theoretical tion utilitarian Walzer Weber Weberian workers
Popular passages
Page vi - In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.