The special issue considers how to make the world a better place
In discussing normativity’s role in achieving social justice, one must assume not only that
there is a way of determining, however fallibly and contingently, what a better world
might look like, but also that there is a way for this ‘concrete utopian’ vision to become
shared socially, leading to questions of democracy or social consensus. Whilst we have
precedents for such achievements – take for example how our factual knowledge about
bacteria has led to normative values about cleanliness, or how (it could be argued)
humans have advanced their moral position for the better over time in terms of the question
of slavery – nevertheless there is often disagreement about how we decide what to
value, that is, what constitutes the good, and what normative role, if any, this good should
play in processes of democracy/ social consensus. Figure 1 refers to the sorts of things that
might be discussed – and indeed are discussed in this Special Issue – when considering
the idea of normativity.
"one must assume not only that there is a way of determining [...], what a better world might look like, but also that there is a way for this ‘concrete utopian’ vision to become shared [...]"
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
#normativity #SocialJustice #MoralRealism #Democracy
#CriticalRealism