Unit:
Κατεύθυνση ΚοινωνιολογίαLibrary of the Faculties of Political Science and Public Administration, Communication and Mass Media Studies, Turkish and Modern Asian Studies, Sociology
Author:
Papadimitraki Maria
Supervisors info:
Γρηγόρης Μολύβας, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Πολιτικής Επιστήμης και Δημόσιας Διοίκησης, ΕΚΠΑ,
Παντελής Λέκκας, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Πολιτικής Επιστήμης και Δημόσιας Διοίκησης, ΕΚΠΑ.
Χάρης Πλατανάκης, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, ΤμήμαΠολιτικής Επιστήμης και Δημόσιας Διοίκησης, ΕΚΠΑ.
Original Title:
Περφεξιονισμός και Πολιτικός Φιλελευθερισμός: Joseph Raz και John Rawls
Translated title:
Perfectiοnism and Pοlitical Liberalism: Joseph Raz and John Rawls
Summary:
Τhe present dissertation focuses on the debate between perfectionism and political liberalism and namely on whether the liberal state is allowed to promote or discourage activities, ideals or ways of life on the grounds of conceptions of the good.
We shall thus explore the prospects and limitations of liberal perfectionism as presented in Raz’s Morality of Freedom (1986) and namely the coherence of the liberal and perfectionist premises of his theory. We shall argue that Raz’s autonomy-based perfectionism presents a solid case for the permissibility of perfectionism but that it fails to uphold its stronger premise for the necessity οf perfectionism and thus leaves Raz’s theory exposed to antiliberalism.
We shall also present the most promising version of neutrality as public justification presented in John Rawls’ Political Liberalism (1993). We shall then examine a serious challenge posed on political liberalism by the asymmetry objection which highlights that reasonable citizens disagree both about justice and about conceptions of the good. Given that fact, political liberalism must explain why the former are legitimate grounds for state action whereas the latter are not. We shall explore Quong’s (2011) promising answer to the asymmetry objection based on an “internal conception” of political liberalism and argue that it cannot shun out perfectionism.
Main subject category:
Social, Political and Economic sciences
Keywords:
perfectionism, political liberalism, neutrality, good, asymmetry objection, ideal theory, justice.
