Perfecting Justice in Rawls, Habermas and Honneth A Deconstructive Perspective

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Synopsis

In this exciting new work, Miriam Bankovsky shows how the pursuit of justice requires two orientations. The first is a practical commitment to the possibility of justice, which is the clear starting point for the broadly constructive theories of Rawls, Habermas and Honneth. Indeed, if justice were not possible, it would be difficult to see why it is worthwhile for human beings to live on this earth. However, a second orientation qualifies the first. It can be expressed as a deconstructive attentiveness to the impossibility of determining justice's content. This impossibility results from the tension between the appeal for individual consideration and the appeal for impartiality, demands that Derrida believes our historical concept of justice includes. Framed by these two orientations, this ambitious book explores the promise and shortcomings of the constructive theories. Attentive to concrete experiences of injustice that these thinkers tend to overlook, Bankovsky provocatively challenges Rawls' account of civil disobedience, Habermas' defence of rational consensus, and Honneth's ideal of mutual recognition, providing new insights into deconstruction's relevance for contemporary theories of justice.

Book details

Series:
Continuum Studies in Political Philosophy
Author:
Miriam Bankovsky
ISBN:
9781441126962
Related ISBNs:
9781472522146
Publisher:
Bloomsbury Publishing
Pages:
256
Reading age:
Not specified
Includes images:
No
Date of addition:
2018-10-18
Usage restrictions:
Copyright
Copyright date:
2012
Copyright by:
N/A 
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Categories:
Nonfiction, Philosophy, Politics and Government