Academic

Legal Theory Bookworm

By Lawrence Solum

The Legal Theory Bookworm recommends The Arc of the Moral Universe and Other Essays by Joshua Cohen. Here is a description:

In this collection of essays, Joshua Cohen locates ideas about democracy in three far-ranging contexts. First, he explores the relationship between democratic values and history. He then discusses democracy in connection with the views of defining political theorists in the democratic tradition: John Locke, John Rawls, Noam Chomsky, Juergen Habermas, and Susan Moller Okin. Finally, he examines the place of democratic ideals in a global setting, suggesting an idea of ?global public reason??a terrain of political justification in global politics in which shared reason still plays an essential role.

All the essays are linked by his overarching claim that political philosophy is a practical subject intended to orient and guide conduct in the social world. Cohen integrates moral, social-scientific, and historical argument in order to develop this stance, and he further confronts the question of whether a society conceived in liberty and dedicated to equality can endure. At Gettysburg, President Lincoln forcefully stated the question and expressed both hope and concern over this same struggle about an affirmative answer. By enabling us to trace the arc of the moral universe, the essays in this volume?along with the companion collection on Philosophy, Politics, Democracy?give us some reasons for sharing that hope.

And from the reviews:

In this marvelous collection, Josh Cohen displays his characteristic mixture of sharp philosophical analysis and serious political engagement. Beginning (and ending) with reflections on the role of moral truth in explaining moral advances, he addresses some of the largest questions about democracy within nations and global justice beyond them. And, on the way, he engages with recent thinkers as important and diverse as Chomsky, Habermas, Okin and Rawls. An exhilarating read.
--K. Anthony Appiah, Princeton University

In this new collection of essays, Josh Cohen cements his position as one of American philosophy's brightest stars. His subject has long been democracy, and here he pushes further his investigation of the way we live democracy, the ways in which it shapes our lives, and the ways our lives shape it. Democracy in his hands is neither an abstract principle nor a fixed set of ideas, but rather a remarkably supple guidebook for government of others and government of the self.
--Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University

And a link to a downloadable version of the title essay (subscription required).  I have long big a huge fan of Cohen's work and I take special pleasure in this bookworm selection.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on January 22, 2011 (boomark / email).