Interpretative realism and prescriptive realism

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Notes

 1. For a recent discussion of international relations realism in a broader context, see D. Bell, ‘Introduction: under a empty sky—realism and political theory’, in D. Bell (Ed.) Political Thought and International Relations: Variations on a Realist Theme (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 1–25, and passim.

 2. J. Tully, Public Philosophy in a New Key. Vol. 1: Democracy and Civic Freedom (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 17.

 3. C. Pateman and C. Mills, Contract and Domination (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007), p. 21. See also the ‘Symposium’ on Contract and Domination, Journal of Political Ideologies, 13 (2008), pp. 227–262.

 4. Bonnie Honig and Marc Stears, who offer a sophisticated critique of the shortcomings of Raymond Geuss, Bernard Williams and Tully qua realists, themselves don the mantles of prescriptive realists of a more subtle kind in berating the latter for leaving ‘citizens/subjects crucially unprepared for the real challenges of political life’. The pedagogical role Honig and Stears advocate is to ‘prepare subjects more fully for the often violent contestations of political life’ and to ‘try to rebuild our futures together’ (B. Honig and M. Stears, ‘The new realism: from modus vivendi to justice’, in J. Floyd and M. Stears (Eds) Political Philosophy versus History? Contextualism and Real Politics in Contemporary Political Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), pp. 177–205 at pp. 202, 203, 205.

 5. Tully, Public Philosophy in a New Key, op. cit., Ref. 2, pp. 16, 28–29.

 6. For a subtle but slightly different view from the one expressed in these pages on the relationship between realism, interpretation, normativity and prescription, see J. Horton, ‘Realism, liberal moralism and a political theory of modus vivendi’, European Journal of Political Theory [special issue—Realism and Political Theory], 9 (2010), pp. 444–445.

 7. R. Geuss, Philosophy and Real Politics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008), p. 11.

 8. Geuss, Philosophy and Real Politics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008)

 9. For a particularly probing and rare analysis of the varieties of political realism that also investigates my own views on the status of realism, see M. Humphrey, ‘Getting “real” about political ideas: conceptual morphology and the realist critique of Anglo-American political philosophy’, in B. Jackson and M. Stears (Eds) Liberalism as Ideology: Essays in Honour of Michael Freeden (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 241–258.

10. M. Freeden, ‘The professional responsibilities of the political theorist’, in Jackson and Stears (Eds) Liberalism as Ideology: Essays in Honour of Michael Freeden (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 259–277.

11. R. North, ‘Political realism: introduction’, European Journal of Political Theory, 9 (2010), p. 382.

12. W. A. Galston, ‘Realism in political theory’, European Journal of Political Theory, 9 (2010), p. 395; M. Philp, ‘What is to be done? Political theory and political realism’, European Journal of Political Theory, 9 (2010), p. 474.

13. Geuss, Philosophy, op. cit., Ref. 7, p. 40.

14. Geuss, Philosophy, op. cit., Ref. 7, p. 25.

15. M. Freeden, ‘What should the “political” in political theory explore?’ Journal of Political Philosophy, 13 (2005), pp. 113–134; see also M. Freeden, ‘Political thinking as power’, in K. Dowding (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Power (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2011), pp. 492–496.

16. B. Williams, In the Beginning Was the Deed (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005).

17. R. Bellamy, ‘Dirty hands and clean gloves: liberal ideals and real politics’, European Journal of Political Theory, 9 (2010), p. 416.

18. Williams, In the Beginning, op. cit., Ref. 16, p. 3.

19. Williams, In the Beginning, op. cit., Ref. 16, p. 11.

20. Williams, In the Beginning, op. cit., Ref. 16, p. 4.

21. Williams, In the Beginning, op. cit., Ref. 16, p. 7.

22. Tully, Public Philosophy in a New Key, op. cit., Ref. 2, p. 23.

23. Williams, In the Beginning, op. cit., Ref. 16, p. 8.

24. See e.g. C. Mouffe, The Return of the Political (London: Verso, 2005).

25. Williams, In the Beginning, op. cit., Ref. 16, p. 13.

26. A. Swift, ‘The value of philosophy in nonideal circumstances’, Social Theory and Practice, 34 (2008), pp. 363–387 at pp. 367, 377.

27. Swift, ‘The value of philosophy in nonideal circumstances’, Social Theory and Practice, 34 (2008), pp. 378, 382; Tully, op. cit., Public Philosophy in a New Key, Ref. 2, p. 27. On the problems with regulative ideals, see also M. Freeden, ‘Failures of political thinking’, Political Studies, 57 (2009), pp. 141–164.

28. Geuss, Philosophy, op. cit., Ref. 7, pp. 5–6.

29. Geuss, Philosophy, op. cit., Ref. 7, p. 52.

30. Geuss, Philosophy, op. cit., Ref. 7, p. 55.