The Importance of Dystopian Hypotheticals: Towards an Ethical Turn in Liberal Political Philosophy

Abstract

This paper argues that liberal philosophy underestimates the importance of political ethics, which I define as the question of how individual citizens should comport themselves politically under largely normal conditions. Using three case studies from popular dystopian science fiction as ‘intuition pumps’, I contend that the behaviour of such individuals, both discretely and collectively speaking, has significant causal potency when it comes to contemporary politics. Upon this basis, I diagnose as pathological the faith that liberal philosophers place in the power of institutional arrangements to curtail human behaviour. I conclude that liberal philosophy should embrace an ‘ethical turn’, in pursuit of which I make some indicative recommendations as to what such a development might comprise.

Lines to a Don: why it is isn’t mindless to “reimagine” Jurisprudence

“…49 In other work, I argue that attention to myths of this kind, in both philosophy and our broader cultural practices, deepens our understanding of various issues germane to the nature of law. 50 In the classroom, I have likewise found material like the story of the greedy frog to be useful springboards for examining the normative and empirical premises behind different conceptions of law and the state (Hobbes, for example, tells us a legal creation myth about fear and violence, whereas Watson cites one about laughter and belonging). Analytical legal philosophers should readily accept this, given the popularity of thought experiments such as Dworkin's Judge Hercules, 51 or Raz's society of angels.…”