Academic

Del Mar on Responsiveness

By Lawrence Solum

Maksymilian T. Del Mar (University of Edinburgh) has posted Responsiveness on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

This paper introduces the notion of responsiveness and the role it might play in moral, political and legal philosophy. The paper has four parts.

The first considers the meaning of the call for making room for responsiveness, and discusses three potential bearers of responsiveness: 1) individuals; 2) institutions; and 3) practices.

The second part of the paper discusses three possible objects of responsiveness (i.e., three possible answers to the question, `responsiveness to what?'): 1) the experience of moral emotions; 2) the perception of values; and 3) thicker concepts, such as needs, suffering, vulnerability and dignity.

The third part of the paper considers the inter-appropriateness of bearers and objects of responsiveness, i.e., it considers the relationship between the theoretical project of making room for responsiveness and the theoretical project of answering the 'what' question.

Finally, the fourth part briefly addresses an assumption made in the first part of the paper, namely, that there always and already exist constraints - an assumption that allows the philosophy of responsiveneness to avoid either presupposing a state of nature or aiming at an ideal theory (e.g., of the good life or of just institutions).

Apart from attempting to analyse the structure of the notion of responsiveness and what it may be capable of offering moral, political and legal philosophy, the paper argues that a philosophy of responsiveness can also help us imagine a responsive philosophy.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on May 02, 2008 (boomark / email).