This paper outlines an account of political realism as a form of ideology critique. We defend the normative edge of this critical-theoretic project against the common charge that there is a problematic trade-off between a theory’s groundedness in facts about the political status quo and its ability to envisage radical departures from the status quo. To overcome that problem, we combine insights from theories of legitimacy by Bernard Williams and other realists, Critical Theory, and analytic epistemological and metaphysical theories of cognitive bias, ideology and social construction. The upshot is an account of realism as empirically informed critique of social and political phenomena. We reject a sharp divide between descriptive and normative theory, and so provide an alternative to the anti-empiricism of some approaches to Critical Theory as well as to the complacency towards existing power structures found within liberal realism, let alone mainstream normative political philosophy, liberal or otherwise.

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23. Anarchy, State and Utopia

Political realism as ideology critique

I argue that the state of boredom (i.e., the transitory and non-pathological experience of boredom) should be understood to be a regulatory psychological state that has the capacity to promote our well-being by contributing to personal growth and to the construction (or reconstruction) of a meaningful life.

The good of boredom

This paper proposes a view, called limitarianism, which suggests that there should be upper limits to the amount of income and wealth a person can hold. One argument for limitarianism is that super...

https://tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/19452829.2019.1633734

What, if Anything, is Wrong with Extreme Wealth?

In this paper, I argue that Ubuntu can be construed as a strict form of cosmopolitan moral and political theory. The implication of this is that the duty or obligation that humans owe other humans arises in virtue of humanity or the notion of human-ness. That is, one is a person insofar as he or she forms humane relations and it is this particular way of beingness that makes every person both an object and subject of duty. On this cosmopolitan interpretation of Ubuntu, I therefore, argue that Ubuntu would support the principle of natural resource redistribution according to which all humans (whether they are our fellow state-citizens, compatriots, locals or not) fall within the scope of justice and the principles of distributive justice. If this is right, then Ubuntu’s cosmopolitanism has something to contribute generally to cosmopolitanism, as an account of global justice.

Ubuntu, Cosmopolitanism, and Distribution of Natural Resources

Animals are used in tourism in many ways. Some uses are more benign such as ecotourism (e.g., viewing elephants in natural settings), while others induce significant levels of suffering, pain and d...

23. Anarchy, State and Utopia

Citations

Political realism as ideology critique

The good of boredom

What, if Anything, is Wrong with Extreme Wealth?

Ubuntu, Cosmopolitanism, and Distribution of Natural Resources

Tourism, animals and the scales of justice

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