Perfecting Justice in Rawls, Habermas and Honneth - A Deconstructive Perspective

In this exciting new work, Miriam Bankovsky shows how the pursuit of justice requires two orientations. The first is a practical commitment to the possibility of justice, which is the clear starting point for the broadly constructive theories of Rawls, Habermas and Honneth. Indeed, if justice were not possible, it would be difficult to see why it is worthwhile for human beings to live on this earth. However, a second orientation qualifies the first. It can be expressed as a deconstructive attentiveness to the impossibility of determining justice''s content. This impossibility results from the tension between the appeal for individual consideration and the appeal for impartiality, demands that Derrida believes our historical concept of justice includes. Framed by these two orientations, this ambitious book explores the promise and shortcomings of the constructive theories. Attentive to concrete experiences of injustice that these thinkers tend to overlook, Bankovsky provocatively challenges Rawls'' account of civil disobedience, Habermas'' defence of rational consensus, and Honneth''s ideal of mutual recognition, providing new insights into deconstruction''s relevance for contemporary theories of justice.>

About the author

Miriam Bankovsky lectures in politics
at La Trobe University, Australia. She is the co-editor, with Alice Le Goff, of
Recognition theory and contemporary
French moral and political philosophy: Reopening the dialogue (Manchester
University Press, 2012).

Product details

• Authors: Miriam Bankovsky, Bankovsky Miriam
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 21.11.2013
• EAN: 9781472522146
• ISBN: 978-1-4725-2214-6
• No. of pages: 256
• Series: Continuum Studies in Political Philosophy; Bloomsbury Research in Political Philosophy; Continuum Studies in Political; Continuum Studies in Political; Bloomsbury Research in Politic; Bloomsbury Research in Political Philosophy
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Miscellaneous