Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations for Rawls’s texts
- Introduction
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- R
- 174 Race
- 175 Rational choice theory
- 176 Rational intuitionism
- 177 Realistic utopia
- 178 The reasonable and the rational
- 179 Reasonable hope
- 180 Reasonable pluralism
- 181 Reciprocity
- 182 Reconciliation
- 183 Redress, principle of
- 184 Relective equilibrium
- 185 Religion
- 186 Respect for persons
- 187 Right: concept of, and formal constraints of
- 188 Rights, constitutional
- 189 Rights, moral and legal
- 190 Rorty, Richard
- 191 Ross, W. D.
- 192 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques
- 193 Rule of law
- 194 Rules (two concepts of)
- S
- T
- U
- W
- Bibliography
- Index
177 - Realistic utopia
from R
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2015
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations for Rawls’s texts
- Introduction
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- R
- 174 Race
- 175 Rational choice theory
- 176 Rational intuitionism
- 177 Realistic utopia
- 178 The reasonable and the rational
- 179 Reasonable hope
- 180 Reasonable pluralism
- 181 Reciprocity
- 182 Reconciliation
- 183 Redress, principle of
- 184 Relective equilibrium
- 185 Religion
- 186 Respect for persons
- 187 Right: concept of, and formal constraints of
- 188 Rights, constitutional
- 189 Rights, moral and legal
- 190 Rorty, Richard
- 191 Ross, W. D.
- 192 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques
- 193 Rule of law
- 194 Rules (two concepts of)
- S
- T
- U
- W
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The phrase “realistic utopia” is used by Rawls in his later work to contrast his view with conceptions, which are “utopian in the pejorative sense” or “unrealistic” (JF 188). This is the case, for instance, of his own “unrealistic” “idea of a well-ordered society by justice as fairness” and of “the account of stability in Part iii of TJ” (PL xix). On the other hand, Rawls rejects mere political realism and, quoting Rousseau, wants to “take men as they are and laws as they might be” (LP 7; LHPP 193, 207).
The expression has three main occurrences. First, it applies to political philosophy and its ambitions as Rawls sees them (JF 4–5; LHPP 10–11; PL 45). Second, and more importantly, it applies to the possibility of reaching an overlapping consensus on a public conception of justice (PL 133–172; JF §58). Third, it applies to the possibility of a reasonably just Society of Peoples (LP 127).
Political philosophy is “realistically utopian” (JF 4–5; LP 4 and §§1, 5–6, 7–11, 124) in the sense that it should try “not to withdraw from society and the world” (PL 45), but to reconcile us with our social world (LP 124; JF 3–4), to strike a balance between ideals and facts, between “the real and the rational,” to use Hegel’s phrase (JF 3).
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- The Cambridge Rawls Lexicon , pp. 688 - 691Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014
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