David A. Reidy - Böcker

John Rawls is widely regarded as one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century, and his work has permanently shaped the nature and terms of moral and political philosophy, deploying a robust and specialized vocabulary that reaches beyond philosophy to political science, economics, sociology, and law. This volume is a complete and accessible guide to Rawls' vocabulary, with over 200 alphabetical encyclopaedic entries written by the world's leading Rawls scholars. From 'basic structure' to 'burdened society', from 'Sidgwick' to 'strains of commitment', and from 'Nash point' to 'natural duties', the volume covers the entirety of Rawls' central ideas and terminology, with illuminating detail and careful cross-referencing. It will be an essential resource for students and scholars of Rawls, as well as for other readers in political philosophy, ethics, political science, sociology, international relations and law.

Universal Human Rights brings new clarity to the important and highly contested concept universal human rights. The Charter of the United Nations commits nearly all nations of the world to promote, to realize and take action to achieve human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, yet this formal consensus masks an underlying confusion about the philosophical basis and practical implications of rights in a world made up of radically different national communities. This collection of essays explores the foundations of universal human rights in four sections devoted to their nature, application, enforcement and limits, concluding that shared rights help to constitute a universal human community, which supports local customs and separate state sovereignty. Rights protect the benefits of cultural diversity, while recognizing the universal dignity that every human life deserves. The eleven contributors to this volume demonstrate from their very different perspectives how human rights can help to bring moral order to an otherwise divided world.

Taken together, the articles collected in this volume offer readers a reliable, illuminating, up-to-date and comprehensive introduction to both the political philosophy of John Rawls and the most significant of the scholarly debates it has generated and is likely to generate in coming years. Thoughtfully selected and introduced by David Reidy, they establish the structure, depth, fecundity and appeal, as well as the potentially significant defects, of Rawls' thought. The volume represents an invaluable resource for both students and scholars of Rawls or contemporary political philosophy.

Wide ranging and up to date, this is the single most comprehensive treatment of the most influential political philosopher of the 20th century, John Rawls. An unprecedented survey that reflects the surge of Rawls scholarship since his death, and the lively debates that have emerged from his workFeatures an outstanding list of contributors, including senior as well as “next generation” Rawls scholarsProvides careful, textually informed exegesis and well-developed critical commentary across all areas of his work, including  non-Rawlsian perspectivesIncludes discussion of new material, covering Rawls’s work from the newly published undergraduate thesis to the final writings on public reason and the law of peoplesCovers Rawls’s moral and political philosophy, his distinctive methodological commitments, and his relationships to the history of moral and political philosophy and to jurisprudence and the social sciencesIncludes discussion of his monumental 1971 book, A Theory of Justice, which is often credited as having revitalized political philosophy

A signal feature of legal and political institutions is that they exercise coercive power. The essays in this volume examine institutional coercion with the aim of trying to understand its nature, justification and limits. Included are essays that take a fresh look at perennial questions – what, if anything, can legitimate state exercises of coercive force? What is coercion in politics and law? – and essays that take a first or nearly first look at newer questions – may the state coercively hold certain terrorists indefinitely? Does the state coerce those seeking to join in same-sex marriage when it refuses to extend legal recognition to same-sex marriage? Can there be a just international order without some agency possessed of the final and rightful authority to coerce states? Leading scholars from philosophy, political science and law examine these and related questions shedding new light on an apparently inescapable feature of political and legal life: Coercion.

John Rawlsis considered the most important theorist of justice in much of western Europe and the English-speaking world more generally. This volume examines Rawls’s theory of international justice as worked out in his last and perhaps most controversial book, The Law of Peoples. It contains new and stimulating essays, some sympathetic, others critical, written by pre-eminent theorists in the field. These essays situate Rawls’s The Law of Peoples historically and methodologically, and examine all its key ingredients: its thin cosmopolitanism, its doctrine of human rights, its principles of global economic justice, and its normative theory of liberal foreign policy. The book will set the terms of the debate on The Law of Peoples for years to come, thereby shaping the broader debates about global justice.

RAWLS'S LAW OF PEOPLES A REALISTIC UTOPIA? "Like his conception of social justice, John Rawls's vision of a just world has been the subject of heated debate, but its real strengths and weaknesses are becoming apparent only gradually. This excellent volume substantially advances that process, and will benefit anyone hoping to understand how one of the greatest political philosophers addressed some of humanity's most pressing problems." Andrew Williams, University of Reading

Wide ranging and up to date, this is the single most comprehensive treatment of the most influential political philosopher of the 20th century, John Rawls. An unprecedented survey that reflects the surge of Rawls scholarship since his death, and the lively debates that have emerged from his workFeatures an outstanding list of contributors, including senior as well as “next generation” Rawls scholarsProvides careful, textually informed exegesis and well-developed critical commentary across all areas of his work, including  non-Rawlsian perspectivesIncludes discussion of new material, covering Rawls’s work from the newly published undergraduate thesis to the final writings on public reason and the law of peoplesCovers Rawls’s moral and political philosophy, his distinctive methodological commitments, and his relationships to the history of moral and political philosophy and to jurisprudence and the social sciencesIncludes discussion of his monumental 1971 book, A Theory of Justice, which is often credited as having revitalized political philosophy