Outside Ethics

What's real in political philosophy?

“…So any laissez-faire principle is not without implied censure. Elsewhere in his book Geuss attacks any presumption that 'ethics can be studied alone without locating it within the rest of human life' (Geuss, 2008, p. 7; see also Geuss, 2005Geuss, /2002Geuss, , 2005Geuss, /2003. The need for moral philosophy to 'touch reality' is a repeated call throughout Williams' work and it should deal with concepts that 'have a grounding in reality' (Williams, 2005(Williams, /1999/1980.…”

“…By this, he means that its role will be connected with the fostering of illusions. In this connection, realist political philosophy will certainly concern itself with puncturing the pretensions of abstractions like St Just's or Bentham's 'happiness' (Geuss, 2005(Geuss, /2002. Realist political analysis, however, which pays proper attention to what actually motivates people, to the workings of power, and which aligns its evaluative vocabulary with history, can certainly aim at conceptual innovation, or at the dismantling of illusion (Geuss, 2008, pp.…”

“…Second, he canvasses the idea -admittedly controversial -that a task of political theory could be to foster ideological illusions. More importantly, third, he is concerned with drawing attention to the ways political theories, wittingly or unwittingly, have political impactbecause aspects of them (and not necessarily the ones their producers would wish) chime with and might amplify social trends (Geuss, 2005(Geuss, /2003. Williams is less clear about this: he entertains both the idea that theories themselves have social explanations, and that they can also have social effects, emphasising that the merits of any particular allegation of either of these have to be determined on a case by case basis.…”

“…Williams is less clear about this: he entertains both the idea that theories themselves have social explanations, and that they can also have social effects, emphasising that the merits of any particular allegation of either of these have to be determined on a case by case basis. His point, though, is that the analytic style of philosophy is too often ill equipped to examine its own impact, or to examine the impact of social reality on it, a point echoed by Geuss (Geuss, 2005(Geuss, /2003Williams, /1980.…”

Raymond Geuss’ radicalization of realism in political theory

“…This view does not preclude the possibility of criticism with transformative goals which, if This requires interrogating the framework of liberal-normative political theory, including its focus on normativity, normative principles and its philosophical toolkit. 37 Recognizing the involvement or rather entanglement of political theory in relations of power further underscores for Geuss the need for self-reflection of realism in political philosophy: "A realistic attitude has to put the possibility on the agenda that one can become engaged in a certain society in one way or another. As taking a realistic attitude is in itself an action, for w hic h one needs to decide -nobody becomes a theorist, let alone a critic, of one's society without his or her own involvement -realism always needs to reflect upon itself and its possibility, otherwise it would be naïve."…”