Giving Evil Its Due Judith Shklar’s (Ambiguous) Cosmopolitan Realism and World Politics

Bibliographic Data

ID13104877
AuthorsChris Royer (0000-0002-9441-8824, University of Hong Kong, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume7
Issue4
Pages702-718
Publication date2020-09-23
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGlobal Intellectual History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2380-1883 • E-ISSN: 2380-1891
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/23801883.2020.1826085
OpenAlexW3088934292
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited14

This article argues that Shklar’s work can serve as a valuable source of inspiration to theorise the problem of humanitarian intervention. In contrast to some of her more sympathetic commentators, however, I will also problematise the tensions and ambiguities in Shklar’s work. As such, my aim in this article is twofold: to demonstrate that Shklar’s work can help us illuminate fundamental problems of world politics; and to demonstrate that the engagement with problems of world politics helps us to illuminate Shklar’s work. My argument is that although Shklar’s thought defies easy categorisation, her work can be understood as a ‘cosmopolitan realism’ as it combines realism’s attentiveness to the realities and constraints of political life with the cosmopolitan insight that there are certain phenomena and experiences that are of genuinely universal concern. This ‘cosmopolitan realism’, however, is compromised by the conceptual ambiguity of Shklar’s concept of cruelty and her undifferentiated use of the concept of evil. I argue that by ‘giving evil its due’, that is, by treating ‘evil’ as a distinctive phenomenon of life that must be distinguished from injustice, Shklar’s cosmopolitan realism can be rectified and, indeed, serve as a valuable source for the creative theorisation of humanitarian intervention

Ambiguity · Cosmopolitanism · Epistemology · Injustice · Political science · Politics · Realism · Sociology · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Law · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Political Theology and Sovereignty

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