Value Conflict And Order

Is the purpose of political philosophy to articulate the moral values that political regimes would realize in a virtually perfect world and show what that implies for the way we should behave toward one another? That model of political philosophy, driven by an effort to draw a picture of an ideal political society, is familiar from the approach of John Rawls and others. Or is political philosophy more useful if it takes the world as it is, acknowledging the existence of various morally non-ideal political realities, and asks how people can live together nonetheless? The latter approach is advocated by “realist” thinkers in contemporary political philosophy. In Value, Conflict, and Order, Edward Hall builds on the work of Isaiah Berlin, Stuart Hampshire, and Bernard Williams in order to establish a political realist’s theory of politics for the twenty-first century. The realist approach, Hall argues, helps us make sense of the nature of moral and political conflict, the ethics of compromising with adversaries and opponents, and the character of political legitimacy. In an era when democratic political systems all over the world are riven by conflict over values and interests, Hall’s conception is bracing and timely.

Is the purpose of political philosophy to articulate the moral values that political regimes would realize in a virtually perfect world and show what that implies for the way we should behave toward one another? That model of political philosophy, driven by an effort to draw a picture of an ideal political society, is familiar from the approach of John Rawls and others. Or is political philosophy more useful if it takes the world as it is, acknowledging the existence of various morally non-ideal political realities, and asks how people can live together nonetheless? The latter approach is advocated by “realist” thinkers in contemporary political philosophy. In Value, Conflict, and Order, Edward Hall builds on the work of Isaiah Berlin, Stuart Hampshire, and Bernard Williams in order to establish a political realist’s theory of politics for the twenty-first century. The realist approach, Hall argues, helps us make sense of the nature of moral and political conflict, the ethics of compromising with adversaries and opponents, and the character of political legitimacy. In an era when democratic political systems all over the world are riven by conflict over values and interests, Hall’s conception is bracing and timely.

Contemporary societies are riddled with moral disputes caused by conflicts between value claims competing for the regulation of matters of public concern. This familiar state of affairs is relevant for one of the most important debates within liberal political thought: should institutions seek to realize justice or peace? Justice-driven philosophers characterize the normative conditions for the resolution of value conflicts through the establishment of a moral consensus on an order of priority between competing value claims. Peace-driven philosophers have concentrated, perhaps more modestly, on the characterization of the ways in which competing value claims should be balanced, with a view to establishing a modus vivendi aimed at containing the conflict. Interactive Justice addresses an important question related to this debate: on what terms should the parties interact during their conflict for their interaction to be morally acceptable to them? Although largely unexplored by political philosophers, this is a main area of concern in conflict management. Building on a proceduralist interpretation of "relational" concerns of justice, the author develops a liberal normative theory of interactive justice for the management of value conflict in politics grounded in the fundamental values of fair hearing and procedural equality. This book innovatively builds a bridge between works in political philosophy and peace studies to propose a fresh lens through which to view the normative responses liberal institutions ought to give to value conflict in politics, and moves beyond the apparent dichotomy between pursuing end-state justice through conflict resolution or peace through conflict containment.

Co-published with the Oxford Philosophy Trust, this first volume in a new series represents the work of the International Conference on Social Values. This volume focuses on education as a separate discipline and addresses the issues such as teacher training, corporate-business school partnerships, and the ethical behavior of academics in their roles as experts in litigation.

Co-published with the Oxford Philosophy Trust, this third volume of collected papers focuses on the moral and ethical concerns and theological reflections encountered in professional training. Essential for those involved in the instruction and training of other professionals.

On the Road to Permissiveness? seeks to describe and explain how European countries have been resolving political issues that involve conflicts of fundamental values. Specifically, these political issues include the regulation of abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, prostitution, pornography, cannabis, sports betting, and handguns. The book addresses the empirical question of how morality policies have changed in recent decades and analyses the change and regulatory trends in different areas of morality policy. It provides a systematic long-term empirical assessment of morality policy change across countries and different fields of morality policy and compares morality policies in 19 OECD countries over a period of 50 years. On the Road to Permissiveness? is divided into three parts. Firstly, it discusses the conceptual framework and measurement approach developed by the editors and the theoretical framework guiding the empirical analyses. In the second part of the book, the editors explore the changes and trends in morality policies, and the third part develops theoretical conclusions and implications on the basis of these findings.

The regulation of issues like abortion, euthanasia, gun control, same-sex unions, pornography, prostitution, drugs, or gambling is commonly referred to a special class of so called morality policies. The distinctive feature of these policies is that politics are shaped by conflicts over first principle: When does life end? When does it begin? Is gambling, drug consumption or prostitution inherently malignant? The regulation of these value conflicts entails decisions about "right" or "wrong" and hence the "validation of a particular set of basic values". Yet there is still a remarkable lack of scholarly attention on morality policies, in particular with regard to general implications for the study of public policy. To stimulate further research in this area, this book focuses on different concepts and theories of morality policy change in European countries. It is based on a broad and comparative empirical perspective on different morality issues, including, for instance, the regulation of prostitution, abortion, euthanasia, gambling, drugs, as well as gun controls.This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy.

Revealing flaws in both "green" and market-based approaches to environmental policy, O'Neill develops an Aristotelian account of well-being. He examines the implications for wider issues involving markets, civil society and politics in modern society.