George Klosko
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 1010701 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | George Klosko |
| NOMBRES | George |
| APELLIDO | Klosko |
| FIRMA | KLOSKO G |
| AFILIACIONES | University of Virginia |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7792-7344 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 75 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 268 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 64 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 12 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1980 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 8 |
Fair Play and Discretionary Response
In recent years, scholars argue that, although the principle of fair play is able to establish obligations to reciprocate for benefits received, these do not include political obligations. They contend that recipients themselves should be able to determine the form their recompense takes. I examine different cases of benefit provision and identify instances in which the principle of fair play does not allow such discretion. An important considera…
Political Obligations and Respect for Social Norms
This paper examines Laura Valentini’s attempt to explain political obligations through her account of social norms, her ‘Agency-Respect View’ (ARV). A great strength of ARV is preserving the ‘content-independence’ of political obligations. However, ARV does not mesh well with the moral phenomenology of political obligations. ARV is able to generate moral requirements that are strikingly weak. Accounting for the far stronger moral force of require…
Content Independence and Political Obligation
Although understanding political obligations as content-independent is standard in the literature, this view cannot be defended. Central to this position is a single content-independent reason to obey virtually all laws because they are laws, as opposed to because of their particular contents. However, intuitively plausible and familiar this view may be, adequate foundational reasons are not to be had. My particular focus is “scope limitations” o…
Political Obligations of Refugees
In the literature on refugees, scholars generally focus on obligations that states have toward refugees, but do not address obligations refugees themselves bear to their new countries. While this situation has been remedied to some extent in recent literature, scholars have not provided an adequate explanation why these obligations hold. We explore the moral basis of refugees’ obligations, with special attention to the need to extend traditional …
Fair Play, Reciprocity, and Natural Duties of Justice
In this paper, I respond to what is currently the most significant criticism of the principle fair play as a basis for political obligations. In a series of cases in which obligations appear to be established by fair play, important scholars contend that the moral principle at work is not fair play but a natural duty of justice to provide essential benefits to other people. Such natural duty accounts strikingly ignore requirements of reciprocity,…
What Socrates Says, and Does Not Say
For several decades, scholars of Plato's dialogues have focussed their efforts on understanding Socrates’ philosophy by unravelling the arguments used to establish it. On this view, Socrates’ philosophy is presented in his arguments, and, as Gregory Vlastos says, ‘Almost everything Socrates says is wiry argument; that is the beauty of his talk for a philosopher.’ In this paper I raise questions about what can be learned about Socrates’ philosophy…
Consent theory of political obligation
In both the history of political theory and popular consciousness, the idea that political obligations rest on consent has played a dominant role. The view is supported by major theorists, who argue that consent provides the best possible explanation of political obligations. The problem, however, is that most people have not in fact consented, either expressly or tacitly. Attempts to show that they have through such means as residing in their co…
The Transformation of American Liberalism
With passage of the Social Security Act, in 1935, the American government took on new social welfare functions, which have expanded ever since. As a work of political theory “on the ground,” The Transformation of American Liberalism explores the arguments American political leaders used to justify and defend social welfare programs since the Social Security Act. Students of political theory note the evolution of liberal political theory between i…
FDR’s Original Sin
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s political ideas before and during his presidency. His justification of the Social Security Act, and what made it distinctive. Discussion of alternatives that Roosevelt had available and did not take, especially what I call “moderate liberalism,” centering on a strong sense of community and a weakened sense of property rights.
Democratic Authority and Respect for the Law
The Transformation of American Liberalism
The passage of the Social Security Act in 1935 ushered in a new era of social welfare policy that was intended to counteract the devastating effects of the Great Depression. While political philosophers generally agree that the values of equality and human dignity are the foundations of the welfare state, America's politicians, beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt, argued for it on different grounds. From the beginning, Roosevelt based his defens…
The Pseudo-Platonic Seventh Letter
Fairness
Although closely related to concepts such as “equality” and “impartiality,” the distinctive domain of fairness is in reference to decision procedures, with the sense that cases that are similar in important respects should be decided according to similar procedures. The notion has a long history. Among the ancient Greeks, Aristotle, in particular, observed that fairness can have different specific senses in different political regimes. In recent …
Rawls, Weithman, and the Stability of Liberal Democracy
Stability
Content-Independent Obligations
Fairness Obligations and Non-Acceptance of Benefits
It is widely held that an adequate theory of political obligation must be general; that is, it must establish requirements to obey the law for all or virtually all members of a given population. In regard to the principle of fairness (or fair play), generality poses a challenge, because many people claim not to want or to accept major benefits provided by the state. However, because the most important state benefits are public goods and so receiv…
Sovereignty
Sovereignty has borne too many conflicting meanings over the centuries. Nevertheless, there arguably exists a definition of sovereignty that is flexible enough to accommodate much of the concept's historical diversity yet concrete enough to be meaningful: supreme authority within a territory. Authority—“the right to command and correlatively, the right to be obeyed,” in Robert Paul Wolff's definition—implies that sovereignty is a matter of right …
The Marxian Tradition
Karl Marx (1818–1883) and his sometime collaborator and long-term friend, Friedrich Engels (1820–1895), are rightly regarded as the founders of a highly significant tradition in the history of political philosophy. However, this was never their aim at the time of writing. Their relationship to politics as activists, and their broad political orientations as socialists, were both clear from the early stages of their careers. The Marxian tradition,…
Animal Rights and Political Theory
In the ancient world, the idea that killing animals for food is wrong arose mainly from belief in a deep continuity between the animal and human psyche. The underlying thought is that the victimization of an animal is sinful and dehumanizing. Among the Greeks, orphic ritual and mysticism mixed with philosophy prescribe a vegetarian diet as a condition of self-purification. Perhaps the major extant work on vegetarianism dating from classical antiq…
Anarchism
Anarchism rejects the state as an inherently despotic institution that must be abolished in order for human nature to flower. This does not mean the absence of social order, however, for anarchism also contains a positive vision of the kind of community it expects to arise when political authority is eliminated. Although it shares liberalism's commitment to individual autonomy and Marxism's commitment to social justice, anarchism claims that it c…
Rights
One of the most notable characteristics of Western societies has been the development of individual and group rights in legal, theological, and philosophical thought of the first two millennia. It has often been noted that thinkers in Non-Western societies have not had the same preoccupation with rights. The very concept of rights is laden with numerous problems. Universality is the most basic and difficult. If human rights are only a product of …
Political obligation and gratitude
Presumptive benefit, fairness, and political obligation
Perfectionism and Neutrality
Chapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 Introduction Part 3 Selections from Published Works Part 4 Neutrality Chapter 5 Selections from in A Matter of Principle Chapter 6 Selections from Social Justice in the Liberal State Chapter 7 Selections from Patterns of Moral Complexity Chapter 8 Selections from Liberal Virtues: Citizenship Chapter 9 Selections from Political Liberalism Chapter 10 Selections from Equality and Partiality Part 11 Perfectionism Chapter 1…
Political Philosophy and the Idea of a Social Science
It appears that the first recognizably modern understanding of the term “social science” was developed during the French Revolution. From its origins, the search for a science of politics modelled upon the perceived success of the natural sciences has been shaped at least as much by political objectives as by pure intellectual curiosity. From their first appearance, the concepts of a social science or of moral or political science were used inter…
Rawls's "Political" Philosophy and American Democracy
John Rawls has recently argued that political philosophy can significantly contribute to making democratic societies stable. He seeks moral principles that can ground what he calls anoverlapping consensusand argues that his well-known principles of justice can serve in this capacity. I criticize both Rawls's general claims about the role of political philosophy and his particular defense of the principles of justice. Both arguments commit Rawls t…
Rebellious Collective Action Revisited
Why does it happen that ordinary people can come to participate in rebellious collective action? In the June 1986 issue of this Review, Edward N. Muller and Karl-Dieter Opp argued a public-goods model to account for why rational citizens may become rebels. They offered empirical data drawn from samples in New York City and Hamburg, Germany in support of the public-goods model. George Kolsko takes issue with the rationale of Muller and Opp, arguin…
Are Political Obligations Content Independent
Current scholars generally view political obligations as “content independent.” Citizens have moral reasons to obey the law because it is the law, rather than because of the content of different laws. However, this position is subject to criticism on both theoretical and practical grounds. The main consideration in favor of content independence, the so-called “self-image of the state,” does not actually support it. Properly understood, the state’…
Political Obligation and the Natural Duties of Justice
Political Constructivism in Rawls'sPolitical Liberalism
InPolitical Liberalism, John Rawls employs a distinctive method of "political constructivism" to establish his well-known principles of justice, arguing that his principles are suited to bridge the ineradicable pluralism of liberal societies and so to ground an "overlapping consensus." Setting aside the question of whether Rawls's method supports his principles, I argue that he does not adequately defend reliance on this particular method rather …
Fixed Content of Political Obligations
An aspect of political obligations that has received little attention is the means through which their content, i.e., exactly what is required of their bearers, is determined. An adequate moral basis for political obligations must account for this requirement, which is closely linked to the concept of authority, the state's right to substitute its judgement in various areas for the subjects' own. The problems faced by theories of obligation based…
Multiple Principles of Political Obligation
Scholars who doubt the existence of general political obligations typically criticize and reject theories of obligation based on individual moral principles, for example, consent, fairness, or a natural duty of justice. Astronger position can result fromcombining different principles in a single theory. I develop a multiprinciple theory of political obligation, based on the principle of fairness, a natural duty of justice, and what I call the “co…
Implementing the Ideal State
Reformist Consent and Political Obligation
It is commonly held that theories of political obligation based on consent, whether express or tacit, cannot account for most people's obligations; that political obligations generally stem from being born into specific societies rather than from voluntary choice. In recent years, consent theorists have turned to ‘reformist’ consent, arguing that consent theory could be rescued if political institutions were reformed to allow the possibility of w…
The Nocturnal Council in Plato's Laws
Serious problems are encountered in integrating the nocturnal council, described in Book XII of the Laws, into the institutional structure presented in Plato's earlier Books. These difficulties are addressed by Glenn Morrow in Plato's Cretan City, and most authorities have accepted Morrow's ‘informal view’. This article contends that an alternative account, the ‘institutional view’, accords more closely with the evidence
Thrasymachos' Eristikos
Some readers of Plato would like to find a consistent doctrine of justice in the arguments that Thrasymachos, the Sophist, is made to offer in Republic I. Professor Klosko argues here that this quest for consistency is misguided. He suggests that if the text is read as depicting an organized dialectical competition between Thrasymachos and Socrates, which is how it should be read, the poor quality of Thrasymachos' reasoning is easily understood
Criteria of fallacy and sophistry for use in the analysis of Platonic dialogues
In recent years considerable attention has been focused on the question whether Plato ever uses arguments he knows to be sophistical, especially whether he puts such arguments into the mouth of Socrates. Though differing views have been held, at the present time the majority of scholars seem to believe that Plato does not. Though I disagree with this position, I will not attack it directly in this paper. Instead I will discuss what I take to be a…
Fairness Obligations and Non-Acceptance of Benefits
It is widely held that an adequate theory of political obligation must be general; that is, it must establish requirements to obey the law for all or virtually all members of a given population. In regard to the principle of fairness (or fair play), generality poses a challenge, because many people claim not to want or to accept major benefits provided by the state. However, because the most important state benefits are public goods and so receiv…
The Obligation to Contribute to Discretionary Public Goods
The principle of fairness, first introduced by H. L. A. Hart in 1955, is able to support a workable theory of political obligation upon liberal premises. In a previous paper, ‘Presumptive benefit, fairness, and political obligation’, I argued that the principle can establish general obligations to cooperate in the provision of ‘presumptive public goods' (that is, public goods that are indispensable to the typical member of society). Because a wid…
The Moral Force of Political Obligations
Political obligations vary in force. Though we have strong obligations to obey certain laws, our obligations to obey others appear to be considerably weaker. Because the weakness of the obligations to obey certain laws has been employed as an argument against the existence of general prima facie political obligations, an adequate theory of political obligation must account for this. By employing the obligation to keep promises as a model, I sort …
The Technical Conception of Virtue
On the Analysis of "Protagoras" 351B-360E
HAVING SECURED PROTAGORAS' ASSENT to the identity of piety, justice, wisdom, and temperance, Socrates attempts to complete his proof of the unity of the virtues by demonstrating the identity of courage and wisdom. After an initial foray in this direction (the fourth argument) is countered by Protagoras, who accuses him of committing a simple fallacy (349el-351b2),1 Socrates launches into the lengthy and complex final argument of the Protagoras (t…
Rawls, Weithman, and the Stability of Liberal Democracy
Cosmopolitanism, Political Obligation, and the Welfare State
While we generally take it for granted that governments should provide social welfare and other benefits to their citizens, justification of these services depends on special moral requirements people owe to their compatriots, as opposed to inhabitants of other countries, who may be far more needy. While widely discussed defenses of compatriot preferences can be seen to be flawed, the latter may be justified through a public goods argument. Secur…
Knowledge and Law in Plato's Laws
Although at one time the nocturnal council, discussed in Book XII of the Laws, was widely viewed as inconsistent with institutions presented in the earlier books, Glenn Morrow apparently solved this problem, in Plato's Cretan City, and his interpretation is accepted by most recent scholars. I revisit the case for inconsistency. As interpreted by Morrow, the nocturnal council is charged with attempting to improve the laws of Magnesia, through appl…
Democracy and Liberty
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Political Obligation and Military Service in Three Countries
Although questions of political obligation have been much discussed by scholars, little attention has been paid to moral reasons advanced by actual states to justify the compliance of their subjects. We examine the `self-image of the state' through Supreme Court decisions in the USA, Germany, and Israel. Because moral reasons are expressed especially clearly in cases regarding obligations to provide military service, we focus on these. In spite o…
Political Obligations and Respect for Social Norms
This paper examines Laura Valentini’s attempt to explain political obligations through her account of social norms, her ‘Agency-Respect View’ (ARV). A great strength of ARV is preserving the ‘content-independence’ of political obligations. However, ARV does not mesh well with the moral phenomenology of political obligations. ARV is able to generate moral requirements that are strikingly weak. Accounting for the far stronger moral force of require…
Content Independence and Political Obligation
Although understanding political obligations as content-independent is standard in the literature, this view cannot be defended. Central to this position is a single content-independent reason to obey virtually all laws because they are laws, as opposed to because of their particular contents. However, intuitively plausible and familiar this view may be, adequate foundational reasons are not to be had. My particular focus is “scope limitations” o…
On the Analysis of "Protagoras" 351B-360E
HAVING SECURED PROTAGORAS' ASSENT to the identity of piety, justice, wisdom, and temperance, Socrates attempts to complete his proof of the unity of the virtues by demonstrating the identity of courage and wisdom. After an initial foray in this direction (the fourth argument) is countered by Protagoras, who accuses him of committing a simple fallacy (349el-351b2),1 Socrates launches into the lengthy and complex final argument of the Protagoras (t…
The Technical Conception of Virtue
Implementing the Ideal State
The Insufficiency of Reason in Plato's Gorgias
The Insufficiency of Reason in Plato's Gorgias
rT _HE GORGIAS is unquestionably most important of Plato's political dialogues prior to Republic. In this confrontation between Socrates and three rhetoricians two of whom, Gorgias and Polus, teach rhetoric, and a third, Callicles, who wishes to employ it toward advancement of his political career Plato rails at length against Sophists and their teaching, while political implications of this are drawn in full. The connections between oratory and …
Criteria of fallacy and sophistry for use in the analysis of Platonic dialogues
In recent years considerable attention has been focused on the question whether Plato ever uses arguments he knows to be sophistical, especially whether he puts such arguments into the mouth of Socrates. Though differing views have been held, at the present time the majority of scholars seem to believe that Plato does not. Though I disagree with this position, I will not attack it directly in this paper. Instead I will discuss what I take to be a…
Plato's Utopianism
One reason the political theory of Plato's Republic is widely misunderstood is that its precise relationship to the political content of the early dialogues is not generally recognized. That the political views of the Republic are frequently misconstrued seems apparent. In recent years many scholars have argued that the ideal state put forward in the work is completely “utopian.” This word is used in different senses, but the sense I will concent…
The Refutation of Callicles in Plato's Gorgias
In a well-known article appearing in 1967, E. L. Harrison examines Plato's manipulation of Thrasymachos in the first book of the Republic . Harrison looks into certain peculiarities in the argument between Thrasymachos and Socrates and explores motives that may have led Plato to have Thrasymachos develop his doctrine in this particular fashion. Though Harrison's conclusions are widely discussed and frequently accepted, it strikes me as interestin…
Thrasymachos' Eristikos
Some readers of Plato would like to find a consistent doctrine of justice in the arguments that Thrasymachos, the Sophist, is made to offer in Republic I. Professor Klosko argues here that this quest for consistency is misguided. He suggests that if the text is read as depicting an organized dialectical competition between Thrasymachos and Socrates, which is how it should be read, the poor quality of Thrasymachos' reasoning is easily understood
Plato and the Morality of Fallacy
Rebellious Collective Action Revisited
Why does it happen that ordinary people can come to participate in rebellious collective action? In the June 1986 issue of this Review, Edward N. Muller and Karl-Dieter Opp argued a public-goods model to account for why rational citizens may become rebels. They offered empirical data drawn from samples in New York City and Hamburg, Germany in support of the public-goods model. George Kolsko takes issue with the rationale of Muller and Opp, arguin…
The Nocturnal Council in Plato's Laws
Serious problems are encountered in integrating the nocturnal council, described in Book XII of the Laws, into the institutional structure presented in Plato's earlier Books. These difficulties are addressed by Glenn Morrow in Plato's Cretan City, and most authorities have accepted Morrow's ‘informal view’. This article contends that an alternative account, the ‘institutional view’, accords more closely with the evidence
Understanding Plato
Parfit's Moral Arithmetic and the Obligation to Obey the Law
Though consequentialist theories of political obligation have been widely criticized in recent years, a series of arguments presented by Derek Parfit, in Reasons and Persons, are now believed to have given this position new life.
The Obligation to Contribute to Discretionary Public Goods
The principle of fairness, first introduced by H. L. A. Hart in 1955, is able to support a workable theory of political obligation upon liberal premises. In a previous paper, ‘Presumptive benefit, fairness, and political obligation’, I argued that the principle can establish general obligations to cooperate in the provision of ‘presumptive public goods' (that is, public goods that are indispensable to the typical member of society). Because a wid…
The Moral Force of Political Obligations
Political obligations vary in force. Though we have strong obligations to obey certain laws, our obligations to obey others appear to be considerably weaker. Because the weakness of the obligations to obey certain laws has been employed as an argument against the existence of general prima facie political obligations, an adequate theory of political obligation must account for this. By employing the obligation to keep promises as a model, I sort …
Finding the Mean
Reformist Consent and Political Obligation
It is commonly held that theories of political obligation based on consent, whether express or tacit, cannot account for most people's obligations; that political obligations generally stem from being born into specific societies rather than from voluntary choice. In recent years, consent theorists have turned to ‘reformist’ consent, arguing that consent theory could be rescued if political institutions were reformed to allow the possibility of w…
Books in Review
Liberal Purposes
Rawls's "Political" Philosophy and American Democracy
John Rawls has recently argued that political philosophy can significantly contribute to making democratic societies stable. He seeks moral principles that can ground what he calls anoverlapping consensusand argues that his well-known principles of justice can serve in this capacity. I criticize both Rawls's general claims about the role of political philosophy and his particular defense of the principles of justice. Both arguments commit Rawls t…
Rawls's Argument from Political Stability
Fear of Diversity
Political Obligation and the Natural Duties of Justice
Liberalism and Pluralism
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