After Politics: The Rejection of Politics in Contemporary Liberal Philosophy

by Glen Newey

Overview

Why do political philosophers why away from politics? After Politics: The Rejection of Politics in Contemporary Liberal Philosophy offers a challenging and original critique of liberalism, the dominant political philosophy of our time, tackling key issues like state legitimacy, value-pluralism, neutrality, the nature of politics, public reasons, and morality in politics. Analyzing major liberal theorists like Rawls, Habermas, Rorty, Barry, Gray, Raz, Larmore, Ackerman and others, Glen Newey argues that liberalism by-passes politics because it ignores or misunderstands human motivation, and elevates academic system-building over political realities of conflict and power.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349417766
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	01/01/2001
Edition description:	1st ed. 2001
Pages:	253
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

GLEN NEWEY is Reader in Politics at the University of Strathclyde and Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Fellow at Princeton University during 2000-2001. He is the author of numerous articles on political philosophy and ethics, and of Virtue, Reason and Toleration: the place of toleration in ethical and political philosophy (1999).

Table of Contents

Dedication Acknowledgements Preface Political Philosophy and Politics Philosophy, Politics and Contestability Political Obligation Politics and the Limits of Pluralism Moral Theory and Political Philosophy Neutralising Politics Rawls and Habermas: Liberalism versus Politics Political Philosophy Without Foundations? Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

Advancing two main claims about the relationship between liberal political philosophy and politics, Newey (politics, U. of Strathclyde) argues that few works of modern liberal political philosophy attempt to address the real world of politics, and that its practitioners seem to supersede politics and aim at a post-political order. Political philosophers, he says, find themselves pulled toward normative theorizing even when they try to provide explanatory theory, leaving an explanatory deficit. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

'...lucid and accessible...' - Journal of Politics

From the Publisher