Tillyris, D and Edyvane, D orcid.org/0000-0003-2169-4171 (2022) ‘Painted scenes’ or ‘empty pageants’? Superficiality and depth in (realist) political thought. Philosophy and Social Criticism, 48 (9). pp. 1277-1301. ISSN 0191-4537
Abstract
The realist injunction to attend to the ‘realities of politics’ when we do political philosophy, though obviously appropriate, is highly platitudinous. By drawing on the underappreciated realist insights of Isaiah Berlin, Stuart Hampshire and Hannah Arendt, we elaborate a neglected distinction between two antagonistic conceptions of political reality – the realism of surface and the realism of depth – and consider its implications for the recent realist turn. We illustrate how that distinction reveals some neglected tensions and incoherencies within contemporary realism and go some way towards untangling and addressing these. Specifically, we enrich the realist charge and highlight two directions which realist scholarship can pursue in its endeavour to offer a meaningful alternative to moralism: an emphasis on i) Vichian fantasia – a kind of knowledge which entails historical awareness but also sensitivity to philology; and ii) suffering and injustice as a basis for critique and for developing a suitable political sphere.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2022. This is an author produced version of an article, accepted for publication in Philosophy and Social Criticism. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | political realism, political reality, Isaiah Berlin, Stuart Hampshire, Hannah Arendt, political moralism |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Politics & International Studies (POLIS) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 16 Dec 2021 13:50 |
Last Modified: | 17 Mar 2023 01:52 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/01914537211066849 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:181624 |