Against Ideal Guidance, Again: A Reply to Erman and Möller

Journal of Politics (forthcoming)
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Abstract

Eva Erman and Niklas Möller have recently presented a trenchant critique of my (2015) argument that ideal normative theories are uninformative for certain practical purposes. Their criticisms are largely correct. In this note, I develop the ideas behind my earlier argument in a way that circumvents their critique and explains more clearly why ideal theory is uninformative for certain purposes while leaving open the possibility that it might be informative for other purposes.

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David Wiens
University of California, San Diego

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References found in this work

The Tyranny of the Ideal: Justice in a Diverse Society.Gerald F. Gaus - 2016 - Princeton: Princeton University Press.
The Law of Peoples.John Rawls - 1993 - Critical Inquiry 20 (1):36-68.
Ideal and nonideal theory.A. John Simmons - 2010 - Philosophy and Public Affairs 38 (1):5-36.
Justice and Feasibility: A Dynamic Approach.Pablo Gilabert - 2017 - In Kevin Vallier & Michael Weber (eds.), Political Utopias: Contemporary Debates. Oxford University Press. pp. 95-126.

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