Internal Critique Research Articles

Why Not a Philosopher King? and Other Objections to Epistocracy

In this paper I will examine epistocracy as a form of limiting the political agency of some citizens (by removing their political rights) and offer an internal critique of it. I will argue that epistocracy runs into a number of logical and epistemic problems in trying to define who should be the members of an epistocratic polity. Furthermore, I will argue that the argument for epistocracy cannot ignore unjust background conditions. I will also suggest that some of the problems epistocracy attempts to correct can be solved in a more just way, while preserving democracy.

Realism, Utopianism and Human Rights

In a recent article, Benjamin McKean defends utopian political theorising by means of an internal critique of realism, construed as essentially anti-utopian, in order to defend human rights against realist objections thereto. I challenge that argument in three steps, focusing on the realism of Raymond Geuss. First, I show that the realism of Raymond Geuss is not incompatible with utopianism, that Geuss never opposes realism to utopianism and that he frequently argues that political theory should be both more realistic and more utopian. Second, I show that McKean misconstrues Geuss’ opposition to human rights as anti-utopian. Neither Geuss’ opposition to ethics-first political theory nor his objections to human rights can accurately be explicated in terms of McKean’s ‘utopianism’. Finally, I show how this misconstruing of Geuss’ realism renders McKean’s critique of Geuss ineffective, as a result of which his defence of human rights against Geuss’ realist objections fails. I conclude with some reflections on the importance of this for methodological debates in political theory, the value of realistically utopian theorising and the ideological power of contemporary ethics-first approaches to political theory.

What Good is Abstraction? From Liberal Legitimacy to Social Justice

The stakes could not be higher. Post-World War II political and economic institutions are under unprecedented pressure. The social coalitions that have sustained them are crumbling. Welfare-state capitalism is in retreat, and liberal institutions are besieged. Right-wing populists are cementing their power and consolidating their grip on political and legal institutions around the globe. The answer to these historical changes cannot be a return to the very status quo that led to them in the first place. This Article argues progressive liberal theoretical frameworks are unfit for purpose. They betray a loss of conviction and commitment to the very egalitarian ideals that progressive liberals advocate for. Specifically, it critiques abstraction as a mode of argumentation in political and legal theory in which there is a retreat from controversial political and moral territory to establish a consensual political regime and binding legal order. It is an internal critique to liberal theory that illustrates that this abstraction does not meet the theory’s own standards and fails to achieve its declared objectives. The main family of theories that betray this lack of conviction is “political liberalism,” as developed by eminent scholars such as John Rawls and Ronald Dworkin. Political liberalism draws a clear distinction between the ambitions of liberal justice and the institutional commitments of liberal legitimacy. Progressive liberals allow as legitimate policies and practices, such as welfare-state capitalism and neo-liberalism, that are detrimental to the very goals that they aspire to. Therefore, the egalitarian bark of progressive liberal theory is louder than its egalitarian bite. Ultimately, liberal legitimacy is not merely different from justice but it also defers justice and legitimates injustice.

Os Pláucios, a emancipação da plebe e a expansão romana: conectando as histórias interna e externa da República Romana

A história da República romana normalmente é dividida entre fenômenos internos, como lutas sociais e transformações institucionais, e externos, como guerras e conquistas. A crítica ao internalismo metodológico desenvolvido pela história global tem trazido uma importante discussão sobre as definições de internalidade e externalidade e sobre as conexões históricas entre processos que antes eram tomados como internos ou externos. Ao longo do século IV a.C. acontecem importantes transformações tanto no que tradicionalmente se toma como “história interna” romana (a emancipação da plebe) quanto no que seria sua “história externa” (a reorganização e a consolidação da dominação romana sobre a Itália central). O intuito deste artigo, tendo por ponto de partida o estudo de caso da atuação política da família dos Pláucios, é mostrar que podemos entender as transformações da época como partes de um mesmo processo histórico: a rearticulação dos grupos sociais da Itália central. Assim, emancipação da plebe e expansão romana não são meros processos históricos coevos e paralelos, mas facetas de um mesmo processo histórico, maior e de escopo geográfico mais amplo.

Freedom of expression, the right to vote, and proportionality at the European Court of Human Rights: An internal critique

This article offers an internal critique of the European Court of Human Rights’ deferential approach to the content and limits of the right to vote (under the right to free and fair elections, article 3 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights). Rather than imposing an independent theory of democratic rights, the critique is internal as it relies on the Court’s own conception of democracy developed under article 10 ECHR (freedom of expression) and article 11 ECHR (freedom of reunion and assembly). It uses normative democratic theory to show that the Court’s conception under those rights reveals an utmost concern for political inclusion and that this conception is systematically used by the Court to balance alleged interferences with this article. It then argues that this concern has implications for the Court’s review of the right to vote. While the Court proclaims the complementarity between expression and vote at the level of principle, the Court refrains from engaging in the balancing exercise under P1-3. The article takes the notorious example of the right of convicted felons to vote. The article does not conclude, however, that the Court should systematically maintain its franchise on democratic grounds. It rather contends that the Court should apply proportionality with the same substantive democratic principles across democratic rights.

Principles of Collective Choice and Constraints of Fairness

In “The Difference Principle Would Not Be Chosen behind the Veil of Ignorance,” Johan E. Gustafsson argues that the parties in the Original Position (OP) would not choose the Difference Principle to regulate their society’s basic structure. In reply to this internal critique, we provide two arguments. First, his choice models do not serve as a counterexample to the choice of the difference principle, as the models must assume that individual rationality scales to collective contexts in a way that begs the question in favor of utilitarianism. Second, the choice models he develops are incompatible with the constraints of fairness that apply in the OP, which by design subordinates claims of rationality to claims of impartiality. When the OP is modeled correctly the difference principle is indeed entailed by the conditions of the OP.

Migration, Entry Fees, and Stakeholdership

Abstract The current European ‘migration crisis’ encompasses increasing rates of migration and the accompanying failure of migrants, including both economic migrants and refugees, to integrate. In this paper, I focus on a normative analysis of the entry fee immigration system, providing both an internal and external critique. In the internal critique, I take for granted that states are best understood as clubs. However, states seem to share greater similarities with clubs that are too exclusive to allow membership to be purchased. In the external critique, I argue that imposing a substantial entry fee on club membership is impermissible if exclusion from membership deprives non-members of basic rights and interests, even if measures are taken to equalise their ability to pay. The upshot of the internal and external critique, I believe, is that membership ought not to be contingent on the payment of a fee, or more generally, the acceptance of current members.

Connecting and confronting transnationalism: bridging concepts and moving critique

ABSTRACTThis article traces the trajectory of transnationalism as a perspective and field of study and suggests that new impetus can be given to its development by establishing a dialogue between transnationalism and other key concepts. While the research agenda of the early stages was characterised by a need to distinguish transnationalism from related terms, such as globalisation, we argue that the field could now regain momentum by exploring synergies with other concepts. In this special issue we stage confrontations between transnationalism and, respectively, the (perspectives opened up by the) concepts of ‘borders’, ‘translocality’, ‘precarity’, ‘queer’, ‘moralities’, ‘the state’, and ‘brokerage’. Conceptually, this allows us to go beyond an internal critique that exposes the shortcomings of a transnational perspective, by suggesting novel frameworks and toolkits. Substantively, this issue’s articles demonstrate the need to refocus transnational studies’ attention to the unevenness, instability and inequality of transnational space.

Liberal nationalism, immigration, and the problem of multiple national identities

ABSTRACT Critics and defenders of liberal nationalism often debate whether the nation-state is able to accommodate cultural and political pluralism, as it necessarily aspires for congruence between state and nation. In this article, I argue that both sides of the debate have neglected a second homogenising assumption of nationalism. Even if it is possible for the nation-building state to accommodate multiple political and cultural communities, it is not obvious that is possible or desirable for it to accommodate individuals belonging to more than one nation. With the rise of international migration, and the growing number of multinational individuals, this flaw is a serious one. I advance an internal critique of liberal nationalism to demonstrate that, from within its own logic, this theory must either reject multiple national identities, or accommodate them at the cost of the normative justifications of nationalism it provides. By analysing David Miller’s influential analysis of national identity in divided societies, I demonstrate how this framework is unable to support an accepting attitude towards multiple national identities. Abbreviation EU = European Union; PM = Prime Minister; MP = Member of Parliament

The significance of ethics reflection groups in mental health care: a focus group study among health care professionals

BackgroundProfessionals within the mental health services face many ethical dilemmas and challenging situations regarding the use of coercion. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the significance of participating in systematic ethics reflection groups focusing on ethical challenges related to coercion.MethodsIn 2013 and 2014, 20 focus group interviews with 127 participants were conducted. The interviews were tape recorded and transcribed verbatim. The analysis is inspired by the concept of ‘bricolage’ which means our approach was inductive.ResultsMost participants report positive experiences with participating in ethics reflection groups: A systematic and well-structured approach to discuss ethical challenges, increased consciousness of formal and informal coercion, a possibility to challenge problematic concepts, attitudes and practices, improved professional competence and confidence, greater trust within the team, more constructive disagreement and room for internal critique, less judgmental reactions and more reasoned approaches, and identification of potential for improvement and alternative courses of action. On several wards, the participation of psychiatrists and psychologists in the reflection groups was missing. The impact of the perceived lack of safety in reflection groups should not be underestimated. Sometimes the method for ethics reflection was utilised in a rigid way. Direct involvement of patients and family was missing.ConclusionThis focus group study indicates the potential of ethics reflection groups to create a moral space in the workplace that promotes critical, reflective and collaborative moral deliberations. Future research, with other designs and methodologies, is needed to further investigate the impact of ethics reflection groups on improving health care practices.

Television is Not Radio: Theologies of Mediation in the Egyptian Islamic Revival

What makes media “Islamic”? Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with Islamic television producers in Cairo, this article looks at the passionate contention within Egypt’s piety movement over the development of new forms of religious media. I suggest that at stake in these mass-mediated debates over da‘wa (Islamic outreach) are conflicting theologies of mediation that configure the boundaries of the religious and the secular differently. This God-talk matters greatly to Islamic revivalists, who spend more time debunking each other than they do secularists. Attention to these internal critiques foregrounds the competing moral conceptions of human flourishing and divine obligation that animate Egypt’s Islamic Revival. Indeed, focusing on the piety movement’s internal fractures as God-talk allows for an ethnographic engagement with how Muslim adepts critique religious difference—and the difference that religious critique makes—beyond the imperatives of secular power. This focus, in turn, complicates the stakes of anthropological judgment.

Feminismos del Sur, abriendo horizontes de descolonización. Los feminismos indígenas y los feminismos comunitarios

Decolonizing Feminism implies the internal critique of «western hegemonic feminisms», and especially the way in which these theoretical and political approaches discursively produce «women of the third world» as monolithic and ahistorical subjects (deconstruction). This criticism is, however, insufficient if there is not an epistemic detachment from the Modernity/Coloniality matrix and a creative intention oriented to search for alternative thoughts located «outside» the European and American universe. Is in this tension that some feminist thoughts and practices from Latin American indigenous worlds can be located. In particular, it is interesting to analyze the communal feminism, since it is located beyond the postcolonial critique. Through categories such as territory-body and territory-land, this feminism grounds itself in an alternative epistemology. The strength of this feminism lies in conceiving sexual oppression as the counterpart of colonial domination, which suggests a double depatriarchalization of the different territories against the forms of oppression of capitalism and, also, of the ancestral patriarchy.

Origin of the scientific arguments underlying qualitative research

This article analyzes the origin of the primary arguments that underpin the qualitative approach, covering the birthplace of comprehensive and dialectical thought in Germany, its expansion into other countries such as France and the United States, and its spread into Latin America. The historical journey of the text starts with the development of modern science, examining the first empirical works in the Chicago School and the subsequent period of ostracism of qualitative research. The text also evidences a revival of comprehensive theoretical and empirical perspectives from the 1960s onwards, accompanying the cultural movement that came to question the great theoretical narratives and give rise to reflections on subjectivity. Theoretically, qualitative approaches are now considered a promising form of knowledge construction within the social and human sciences, with consolidated theories and a process of permanent internal critique. Such consolidation is ensured by the researchers' formation of conferences and university departments, the existence of books for the training of new researchers, and the increased presence of relevant spaces in scientific journals.

Dewey's and Freire's popular philosophies of education in a capitalist context

This article looks at Dewey’s and Freire’s popular philosophies of education in light of their views of the relation between common sense and scientific inquiry. Dewey’s view, unlike that of Freire, requires the data to be radically reorganized so that the inductive data cannot really be considered merely a reorganizing of common-sense experience. Dewey, though, does not apply his own characterization of scientific inquiry to his critique of capitalist relations; his criticism constitutes an external critique of capitalism via his concept of a cultural lag. Freire, too, criticizes capitalist relations not on its own terms but externally, via his humanist ethical condemnation of treating human subjects as objects. Marx, on the other hand, proposes an internal critique of capitalist relations, starting with the contradictory inductive unit of the commodity that parallels Dewey’s concept of scientific induction. Freire, despite his different conception of scientific inquiry, shares Marx’s interest in the working class and provides a complementary educational approach by addressing the working class’ experience of fear, by counteracting the denigration of working-class experience and by arguing against the claim of neutrality in inquiry in a capitalist context. A synthesis of the three philosophies would therefore serve better the educational needs of the working class.

Hybridity, possibility: Degrees of marketization in tradeable permit systems

Tradeable permit systems for allocating rights to impact the environment have become an important part of the regulatory toolkit over the last 35 years. Informed by elegant neoclassical economic thought, these regulatory markets promise lowest-cost environmental benefit by delegating decision-making to market participants. This article examines tradeable permits systems, including cap-and-trade carbon markets, tradeable water quality permits, and individual transferable quotas for fisheries, to understand the actual outcomes of attempts to transfer environmental governance to markets. Drawing on heterodox economic thought and the neoliberal natures literature, this article examines the institutional forms tradeable permit systems engender in conjunction with a neoclassical definition of ‘market’ to provide an internal critique of environmental marketization. In general, tradeable permit systems do not facilitate highly liquid financial markets that might signal the increasing importance of regulatory markets as an accumulation strategy for capital. Instead, market-based regulation tends to behave rather differently, acting as performance standards, quotas, or environmental taxes. The article concludes by reflecting on the political possibilities afforded by the recognition that regulatory markets, for the most part, bear little resemblance to high-flying financial markets.

Smartfounding: Four Grades of Resistance to Thought Experiments

Smartfounding is the opposite of “dumbfounding” introduced by Jonathan Haidt’s research on disgust. Dumbfounders have general competence at thought experiment (in contrast to people who lack formal education). However, they are flustered by thought experiments that support repugnant conclusions. Instead of following the supposition wherever it leads, they avoid unsettling implications by adding extraneous information or ignoring stipulated conditions. The dumbfounded commit performance errors, often seeming to regress to the answers of people who lack formal schooling. Smartfounders retain their composure. They practice subversive compliance, obeying the instructions in a way that spoils the aim of the thought experiment. Smartfounders offer a more sophisticated grade of resistance to thought experiment. Whereas the lower grades of resistance are merely fallacious, smartfounding often constitutes a penetrating internal critique of the thought experiment and sometimes of thought experiments in general.

Putting Liberty in its Place: Rawlsian Liberalism without the Liberalism

AbstractTo be a liberal is, among other things, to grant basic liberties some degree of priority over other aspects of justice. But why do basic liberties warrant this special treatment? For Rawls, the answer has to do with the allegedly special connection between these freedoms and the ‘two moral powers’ of reasonableness and rationality. Basic freedoms are said to be preconditions for the development and exercise of these powers and are held to warrant priority over other justice‐relevant values for that reason. In the first half of the article I mount an internal critique of this Rawlsian line, arguing that it is flawed in two main ways. First, it overestimates the contribution of basic freedom to moral personality. Second, it underestimates the contribution of non‐liberty resources (such as basic material necessities, but also opportunities for culture, education, leisure, and social contribution) to moral personality. In the second half of the article I repair these flaws (thus putting liberty in its proper place, if you like). The result is a new, intriguingly radical version of justice as fairness, one with surprising—yet plausible—implications for economic and gender justice.

Acts of Literature: Notes on "The Return of the Caravels"

Abstract: The last two decades or so have witnessed a profound theoretical reaction against cultural and aesthetic claims of “literariness.” Despite its political appeal, however, such a critical attitude too often forgets the capacity of all canonical cultures to challenge and critique themselves internally. This paper reads the work of António Lobo Antunes, in particular his The Return of the Caravels, as an exemplary instance of such internal critique, reworking The Lusiads to yoke imperial fantasies of the Age of Discovery to harsher memories of the Portuguese occupation of Angola. Yet, no simple work of counter-imperial demystification, Lobo Antunes’s novel does not simply dismiss or destroy the rich epic texture of The Lusiads. Instead, it strives to “recycle” the tropes and allusions of the earlier work into a new ethical fabric for our times. In so doing, it also provides an occasion to re-think the value of “literariness” itself: its elasticity, capacity for metamorphoses, and status as a record of all that is not only worst but also best in culture, imperial or anti-imperial, European or otherwise.

Comparative Desert Vs. Fairness

In the recent book The Geometry of Desert, Shelly Kagan explores, with a rare degree of precision, how best to cash out two fundamental and widely shared intuitions. The first intuition says that virtuous people deserve to be doing well, and that less virtuous (or vicious) people deserve to be doing less well – and thus, that it’s good (other things equal) if virtuous people are doing well and if less virtuous (or vicious) people are doing less well (or even badly). The second intuition says that the distribution of the satisfaction of people’s desert claims across persons matters: that it’s good (other things equal) if people’s desert claims are satisfied in accordance with the demands of interpersonal fairness. The former intuition states the basis of what Kagan calls ‘absolute desert’. The latter articulates the basis of what he calls ‘comparative desert’. I advance an internal critique of Kagan’s conception of comparative desert; I argue that it contravenes the demands of interpersonal fairness in the domain of desert, and so fails on its own terms.

Hegel, Analytic Philosophy’s Pharmakon

In this article I argue that Hegel has become analytic philosophy’s “pharmakon”—both its “poison” and its “cure.” Traditionally, Hegel’s philosophy has been attacked by Anglo-American analytical philosophers for its alleged charlatanism and irrelevance. Yet starting from the 1970s there has been a revival of interest in Hegel’s philosophical work, which, I suggest, may be explained by three developments: (1) the revival of interest in Aristotelianism following Saul Kripke’s and Hilary Putnam’s work on natural kinds, and Elizabeth Anscombe’s, Philippa Foot’s, and Putnam’s opposition to the fact-value distinction; (2) the rehabilitation of Hegel’s theories by various philosophers, including Robert Pippin, Terry Pinkard, Fred Beiser, Robert Stern, and Stephen Houlgate; and (3) the Sellars-inspired philosophy of mind of John McDowell and of Robert Brandom. The first and third of these reasons, I argue, have led several analytic theorists to cast Hegel in a more positive light as the “cure” for analytic philosophy. The combined outcome of these changes, both ironic and fitting, is that the Hegelian principle of internal critique has played a significant role not only in analytic philosophy’s rapprochement with Hegel’s philosophy but also in overcoming the Analytic-Continental philosophical divide.