Justice and the demands of realism

The dissertation examines how concerns about the demands of realism should be addressed in political theories of justice. It asks whether the demands of realism should affect the construction of principles of justice and, if so, how principles should respond to those demands. To address the problems posed by the demands of realism, the dissertation focuses on two specific realist concerns - namely, a concern about the motivational demands of justice and a concern about moral and religious pluralism - and asks what role, if any, these concerns should play in the articulation of principles of justice. Through a critical interrogation of the theories of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Rawls, and Jurgen Habermas, the author argues that a conception of justice should be attentive to citizens' motivational capacities and reasonable moral and religious worldviews but should not automatically accommodate their determinate preferences, opinions, and beliefs which may be objectionable. Endorsing an ideal of deliberative democracy and a conception of deliberative citizenship, the author argues that institutional arrangements which encourage democratic deliberation can help citizens to be more reflective about their determinate motives and beliefs and help them to acquire the desire and reason necessary to support just principles and institutions.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Political Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Munro, Daniel K., 1972-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Joshua Cohen.

• Political Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34403

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34403