Posts by: Kevin Vallier
David Friedman has recently challenged BHLers to clarify our understanding of social justice (also see here). David has expressed some frustration that BHLers have sometimes offered definitions of social justice that seem inconsistent with one another.
I differ a bit from J about how to understand social justice, so I thought [...]
The Nation has just published a piece by BHL’s old friend Corey Robin where Robin tries to draw a significant connection between Austrian economics’ view of economic value and Nietzsche’s far broader value skepticism (also see Robin’s CT post here). The upshot, from what I can tell, is that Austrians are [...]
Two days ago, Roderick argued that eudaimonism provides an attractive moral foundation for the non-aggression principle despite the claims of public reason liberals. Here I try to show that his criticisms fail. I admit that we are now deep into the non-aggression wars and many of the details may weary our readers. But [...]
Roderick and I have been around the block on the relationship between eudaimonism and self-ownership/non-aggression principles (SOP/NAP). Roderick thinks eudaimonism, properly understood, vindicates SOP/NAP as principles of justice, whereas I think eudaimonism underdetermines whether SOP/NAPs are the right principles of justice.[1] In large part due to Roderick’s [...]
As readers of this blog are no doubt aware, our maestro, Matt Zwolinski, has raised some hackles for his claim that the much beloved libertarian non-aggression principle is both a poor foundation for libertarianism, and, more importantly, false. I agree with pretty much everything Matt says, but I want to add some detail [...]
I’ve recently finished reading the great political theorist Michael Walzer’s book In God’s Shadow: Politics in the Hebrew Bible. Walzer’s thesis is that the Biblical writers were “not very interested in politics” in contrast to the ancient Greeks. In fact, “there is a strong anti-political tendency in the biblical texts.” [...]
Libertarians regularly argue about the relationship between their political commitments and their “moral views.” The disagreement seems to proceed by answers to two questions.
1. Do libertarian political commitments imply moral commitments?
2. If yes, which moral commitments?
Those who answer “No” to the first question are sometimes called “thin” libertarians, [...]
Ronald Dworkin Has Died
By Kevin Vallier On February 14, 2013 · 4 Comments · In Academic Philosophy, Announcements, Current Events
A sad report. For those of you who don’t know know, Ronald Dworkin was one of the most prominent American political philosophers of the later 20th century. In the minds of some, he was second only to Rawls. Dworkin was especially prominent for his famous debate with [...]
When the great social democratic political philosophers of our day decide to address libertarianism outside of a philosophy journal, I am typically left wondering who on earth they think they’re attacking. This was in evidence in Thomas Scanlon’s recent criticism of libertarianism and is true of Philip Pettit’s criticism published [...]
Question for the day: What if the science-religion conflict is hurting the economy?
My question was prompted by this editorial in science arguing that the politicization of science has led the public to oppose it. The title is “Science must be seen to bridge the political divide.”
I think I [...]
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- good_in_theory on Social Injustice as Emergent Property
- good_in_theory on Specificity and Overspecificity about “Social Justice”
- MARK_D_FRIEDMAN on Barack Obama’s Political Philosophy
- Sean II on Specificity and Overspecificity about “Social Justice”
- Matt Zwolinski on Social Injustice as Emergent Property
