Ulas, L. orcid.org/0000-0002-8294-4704 (2023) Can political realism be action-guiding? Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 26 (4). pp. 528-553. ISSN 1369-8230
Abstract
Various political realists claim the superior 'action guiding' qualities of their way of approaching normative political theory, as compared to 'liberal moralism'. This paper subjects that claim to critique. I first clarify the general idea of action guidance, and identify two types of guidance that a political theory might try to offer - 'prescriptive action-guidance' and 'orienting action-guidance' - together with the conditions that must be met before we can understand such guidance as having been successfully offered. I then go on to argue that if we take realist understandings of political psychology seriously, then realist attempts to offer action guidance appear to fail by realism’s own lights. I demonstrate this by means of engagement with a variety of different realist theorists.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: | |
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an author-produced version of a paper subsequently published in Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | political realism; moralism; liberalism; action guidance |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Politics and International Relations (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 29 May 2020 07:50 |
Last Modified: | 24 May 2024 12:53 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/13698230.2020.1774855 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:161214 |