Philosophy in the face of reality

Jake and I have both posted about Rand Paul’s political philosophy and the challenge he faces in the political sphere.  On Sunday, RNC Chairman Michael Steele told Fox News that “Rand Paul’s philosophy got in the way of reality.”  This is a common critique of ideal philosophy: it may have something interesting to say, but it is of little practical use when it comes to the real world.  This, of course, is not true.  As my advisor, Adam Swift, writes: “we need fundamental, context-independent, normative philosophical claims to guide political action even in non-ideal circumstances.”  Check out his whole article from Social Theory and Practice for an informative take on the role of philosophy in the face of reality.

-Marc

Related posts:

  1. Reality Philosophy?
  2. Public philosophy in the face of uncertainty
  3. The perils of philosophy in public
  4. Philosophy for second graders
  5. Philosophy and abstraction via The Stone

May 25, 2010 · Filed Under Marc

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  • Editors

    Jacob Bronsther is a law student at NYU. He has an MPhil in Political Theory from Oxford.

  • Sam Gill is a consultant in DC. He studied Political Theory at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.

  • Marc Grinberg is a Presidential Management Fellow. He studied Political Theory at Oxford.

  • John Rood is founder of Next Step Test Prep. He has an AM in Political Theory from Chicago.

  • Luke Freedman is studying Philosophy and Political Science at Carleton College.


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