Perfecting Justice in Rawls, Habermas and Honneth: A Deconstructive Perspective (Bloomsbury Research in Political Philosophy) - Softcover

Bankovsky, Miriam

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1472522141 ISBN 13: 9781472522146

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014

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.

About this title

Book Description:

Brings a deconstructive perspective to the theories of justice of Rawls, Habermas and Honneth.

About the Author:

Miriam Bankovsky lectures in politics at La Trobe University, Australia. She is the co-editor, with Alice Le Goff, of Recognition theory and contemporary French moral and political philosophy: Reopening the dialogue (2012).

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1472522141
• ISBN 13: 9781472522146
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256