RT Article
T1 Realism and Political Normativity
JF Ethical theory and moral practice
VO 25
IS 3
SP 465
OP 478
A1 Sleat, Matt
LA English
PB Springer Science + Business Media B. V
YR 2022
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1815651881
AB A prevailing understanding of realism, chiefly among its critics, casts realists as those who seek a ‘distinctively political normativity’, where this is interpreted as meaning nonmoral in kind. Moralists, on this account, are those who reject this and believe that political normativity remains moral. Critics have then focused much of their attention on demonstrating that the search for a nonmoral political normativity is doomed to fail which, if right, would then seem to fatally undermine the realist endeavour. This paper makes the case that casting the difference between realism and moralism in these terms is a mistake, one which overlooks the substantial body of realist work which is clear that it has no such aspirations to develop a nonmoral political normativity. The hope is that in drawing attention to this mistake a line can be drawn under these unhelpful debates, and we can move on to more fruitful constructive and critical discussions between realists and their critics.
K1 Moralism
K1 Political normativity
K1 Realism
DO 10.1007/s10677-021-10239-8