Re: [OPE] Paper about Venezuela.

Hello Paula. My paper was sent to your in-box.   Thanks for the reference on that criticism to Rawls:   “I object to the claim that politics is applied ethics,” he writes in his introduction. Rather than starting out, like Socrates, with questions about the good or the just, we should ask the question famously posed by Lenin: “Who whom?” That is, in any actual society, who has power, what do they use it for, and who suffers as a result? “To think politically,” writes Geuss, “is to think about agency, power, and interests, and the relations among these.” http://www.city-journal.org/2008/bc1017ak.html   I think that criticisms to Rawls from a “Real Politics” point of view are very weak in general. It is true that politics is about agency, power, and interests, but not only. Since expectations have an important role, politics is also a realm of applied ethics. Furthermore, since our institutions are shaped by rivalry comprehensive views about our world, these views constitute moral systems that try to achieve models that are significant in themselves, beyond the fact of rivalry.   For example, it is very difficult to deny the influence of ethical codes like “human rights” in politics today. Just as we need a sound institutional economic design behind an economic doctrine, we also need a sound institutional political design, and this has been less contested in politics than in economics.   Regards,A. Agafonow ________________________________ De: Paula <Paula_cerni@msn.com> Para: Outline on Political Economy mailing list <ope@lists.csuchico.edu> Enviado: lunes, 10 de noviembre, 2008 3:43:58 Asunto: Re: [OPE] Paper about Venezuela. Hi Alejandro - I would be interested in reading your paper. Also, I recently came across this review of a book that critiques Rawls from a radical (Marxist?) perspective; it sounds quite interesting. http://www.city-journal.org/2008/bc1017ak.html   Paula

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Received on Mon Nov 10 02:48:35 2008