The open society and the future of political philosophy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10690191 |
|---|---|
| Authors | J P Messina (0000-0002-0214-5022, Purdue University West Lafayette, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 75 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 1049-1070 |
| Publication date | 2025-06-12 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Philosophical Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0031-8094 • E-ISSN: 1467-9213 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/pq/pqae043 |
| OpenAlex | W4399102281 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 20 |
This paper defends traditional political philosophy against the challenges Gaus leverages against it in The Open Society and Its Complexities. Granting Gaus that consensus on the principles of political philosophy is not forthcoming and that complexity undermines many of our most ambitious reform efforts, the paper argues that much work remains for political philosophy as it has been practiced for centuries. This is for three reasons. First, Gaus's own defense of the open society requires resources from the very traditions that he tends to dismiss. Secondly, the kinds of reform Gaus encourages us to focus on in light of complexity presuppose answers to philosophical questions, answers that philosophers have long attempted to provide. Thirdly, not all politically salient philosophical questions are aimed at action guidance. Despite the value in Gaus's analysis, I conclude that political philosophy's future will look, at least in part, like its storied past
Action (physics) · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Law and economics · Political action · Political philosophy · Political science · Politics · Salient · Sociology · Value (mathematics) · Computer Science · Law · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought
Anarchy, State, and Utopia
Justice as Fairness
Against Autonomy
Utopophobia
Welfare Should Be the Currency of Justice
Rescuing Justice and Equality
Prioritarianism
The Oxford Handbook of Political Philosophy
Desert and Distributive Justice in A Theory of Justice
Rejecting the order of public reason
The Public and Its Problems
On the Currency of Egalitarian Justice
The Liberal Archipelago
Egalitarianism and the Undeserving Poor
Social Contract Theory for a Diverse World
Expert Political Judgment
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |