Getting Realistic About Action-Guidance: Moralism, Radical Realism and Divisions of Labour
| Published date | 01 May 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14789299221147459 |
| Author | Ben Cross |
| Date | 01 May 2024 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299221147459
Political Studies Review
2024, Vol. 22(2) 298 –312
© The Author(s) 2023
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DOI: 10.1177/14789299221147459
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Getting Realistic About Action-
Guidance: Moralism, Radical
Realism and Divisions of Labour
Ben Cross
Abstract
Moralists and radical realists both seem to employ a division of intellectual labour to enable their
theories to be action-guiding. Moralists typically distinguish between formulating normative principles
and devising suitable means for implementing or approximating them. Radical realists, meanwhile,
seem to distinguish between the findings of ideology critique and further political theorising informed
by these findings. However, radical realist criticisms of the moralist division of labour may suggest
a tu quoque objection to radical realism: if the moralist division of labour is defective, why does the
same not also hold for the radical realist division of labour? My aim in this article is to answer this
question. I identify two distinct radical realist objections to the moralist division of labour, which
I refer to as the seminar room objection and the motivation objection respectively. I then argue
that radical realists can deal effectively with these objections if they were to be turned against their
version of the division of labour. Hence, radical realists can consistently criticise moralist versions of
the division of labour while simultaneously employing their own version.
Keywords
political realism, radical realism, moralism, action-guidance, division of labour, ideal theory,
nonideal theory, ideology critique
Accepted: 8 December 2022
Introduction
Several political realists have criticised moralist political philosophy for being unable to
provide action-guidance (Galston, 2010; Horton, 2017). The basis for this criticism is that
moralists allegedly lack a realistic picture of human psychology and cognitive abilities.
For example, any moralist norms that only take into account human beings’ capacity for
rationality will fail to be action-guiding, since they rely on an incomplete account of
human psychology.
In a recent article, Luke Ulaş (2020) neatly turns the tables on realists by arguing that
they face this same problem. They, too, provide norms that presuppose an unrealistic
School of Philosophy, Wuhan University, Hubei, China
Corresponding author:
Ben Cross, School of Philosophy, Wuhan University, Hubei 430072, China.
Email: bcro8137@alumni.sydney.edu.au
1147459PSW0010.1177/14789299221147459Political Studies ReviewCross
research-article2023
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