How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Political Normativity
| Published date | 01 November 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14789299221136410 |
| Author | Adrian Kreutz,Enzo Rossi |
| Date | 01 November 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Early Results |
https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299221136410
Political Studies Review
2023, Vol. 21(4) 857 –866
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/14789299221136410
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How I Learned to Stop
Worrying and Love Political
Normativity
Adrian Kreutz1 and Enzo Rossi2
Abstract
Do salient normative claims about politics require moral premises? Political moralists think they
do, political realists think they do not. We defend the viability of realism in a two-pronged way.
First, we show that a number of recent attacks on realism as well as realist responses to those
attacks unduly conflate distinctly political normativity and non-moral political normativity. Second,
we argue that Alex Worsnip and Jonathan Leader-Maynard’s recent attack on realist arguments for
a distinctly political normativity depends on assuming moralism as the default view, which places
an excessive burden on the viability of realism, and so begs the question. Our discussion, though,
does not address the relative merits of realism and moralism, so its upshot is relatively ecumenical:
moralism need not be the view that all apt normative political judgements are moral judgements,
and realism need not be the view that no apt normative political judgements are moral judgements.
Keywords
method in political philosophy, political realism and moralism, political normativity
Accepted: 17 October 2022
If you know your enemy,
and you know yourself,
you need not fear the results
of a hundred battles.
–Sūnzǐ
Introduction
Where do normative claims about politics come from? From what sorts of premises do
they follow? Most post-Rawlsian Anglo-American political philosophers maintain that
1Department of Politics and International Relations and New College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
2Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Corresponding author:
Adrian Kreutz, Department of Politics and International Relations and New College, University of Oxford,
Holywell Street, OX13BN Oxford, UK.
Email: adrian.kreutz@politics.ox.ac.uk
1136410PSW0010.1177/14789299221136410Political Studies ReviewKreutz and Rossi
research-article2022
Early Result
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