Practices and Principles - Hardcover

Tunick, Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691015600 ISBN 13: 9780691015606

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1998

Synopsis

A Japanese woman living in California attempts parent-child suicide, an ancient Japanese custom called "oyako-shinju," in order to rid herself of shame upon learning that her husband has a mistress. She survives, but her two children are drowned in the attempt. Since her attempt was made in accordance with the standards of Japanese culture, should she be tried by the standards and laws of the United States? Are there universally valid moral principles that dictate what is right? Or are moral judgments culturally relative, ultimately dictated by conventions and practices that vary among societies? In Practices and Principles, Mark Tunick takes up the debate between universalists and relativists, and, in political philosophy, between communitarians and liberals, each of which has roots in an earlier debate between Kant and Hegel.


Tunick focuses on three case studies: promises, contract law, and the Fourth Amendment issue of privacy. In his analysis, he rejects both uncritical deference to social practice and draconian adherence to principles when making legal and ethical judgments. He argues that we do not always need to choose between abstract principles and social practices. Sometimes we appeal to both; sometimes we need to appeal to shared social norms; and sometimes, where there is no ethical community, we can appeal only to principles. Ultimately, Tunick rejects simplified arguments that force us to choose between either practices or principles, universalism or relativism, and liberalism or communitarianism.

About this title

About the Author

Mark Tunick is Associate Professor of Political Science, The Honors College, at Florida Atlantic University. He is the author of Punishment: Theory and Practice and Hegel's Political Philosophy: Interpreting the Practice of Legal Punishment (Princeton).

Reviews

Tunick, well known as a specialist on Hegel (Hegel's Political Philosophy, Princeton Univ., 1992), puts his expertise to good use in this work, addressing the question of how such social practices should count in ethical and legal questions. In response, he usefully contrasts the views of Kant, who stressed universal principles, with Hegel, for whom local circumstance stood foremost. Tunick by no means confines his interest in the topic to historical matters. He discusses the role of social practice in issues of promises, contract law, and privacy. The author's own position avoids exclusive stress on either principles or practice. His striking and original discussion merits wide attention.?David Gordon, Bowling Green State Univ., OH
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691015600
• ISBN 13: 9780691015606
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256