Online book launch ‘Pluralizing Political Philosophy’

Over the last years, I have edited a volume of papers on the question how to make analytical political philosophy more inclusive, with a particular focus on the debates on economic and ecological inequalities. The starting point was the observation that analytical political philosophy has for a long time been criticised for marginalizing (to a greater or lesser extent) certain voices and perspectives. Some of these voices and perspectives are internal critics of the liberal tradition – think of the feminist critiques or the critiques by care ethicists. But there have also been external perspectives that have been largely ignored, in particular perspectives from outside the western traditions. While there are well-developed specialist literatures on all of these traditions, they tend to be studied mainly by specialists. Non-western political philosophy and the internal critiques of liberal political philosophy are still too often overlooked in the field. My own estimation is that things are getting better – but very slowly, and hence I wanted to edit a book to make another small contribution to these collective effects to make political philosophy more pluralistic.

In this volume, political philosophers who are experts on those marginalized traditions, as well as liberal political philosophers, have contributed chapters to show what their traditions could offer to the discussion on ecological and economic inequalities. The perspectives included in this book are Maori philosophy in the chapter by Krushil Watene; ecofeminism, which Avner de Shalit examined; care ethics, on which Eva Kittay contributed a chapter; Confucian political philosophy on climate change in the chapter by Tongdong Bai; the question what social justice requires from the perspective of Ubuntu Philosophy, in a chapter written by Motsamai Molefe; an analysis of Buen Vivir in the chapter by Facundo García Valverde; a chapter by Thad Metz who has been developing a novel hybrid approach that bridges East and West and South and North as well as insights from care ethics and liberal philosophy; and critical analysis of liberal egalitarianism by Lisa Herzog and of classical liberalism by Constanze Binder. Together, they illustrate the diversity of a pluralised political philosophy. In addition, some chapters are providing reflections on the project or process of pluralizing political philosophy. Simon Caney discusses in his chapter why and how liberal thinkers working on global justice should engage with literature from the Global South, and Jonathan Wolff whether and how to broaden the canon, and what the discipline would gain by further pluralizing.

Because this edited volume aims to contribute to the growing debate on the nature of contemporary (analytical) political philosophy, including its biases, unquestioned assumptions, and possible omissions, I felt that the volume itself should already entail some of that debate (thereby having been inspired by the famous 1993 Nussbaum-Sen volume on the quality of life – which has now also been made open access). The Pluralizing Political Philosophy volume therefore also includes four chapters that provide critical reflections on the main chapters in the book, on the limits of the volume as a whole, and the lessons we can learn for the discipline of analytical political philosophy. Those chapters have been written by Sor-hoon Tan, Cristian Pérez Muñoz, Serene Khader, and myself.

Since the book is published open access, the hope is that students and scholars of political philosophy from around the world can use it to expand their knowledge of diversity within the discipline, as well as engage with the question what pluralizing political philosophy could and should entail. And hopefully the chapters will be seen as invitations to further deepen one’s knowledge in those various traditions.

The book has been out for a few months, so it’s high time for a book launch! The online launch will last for one hour, from 21.00-22.00 CEST on June 4th (the timezone for the Netherlands and South Africa and many of the countries in between – but see the first comment for equivalent times elsewhere). It will take place via Teams, and you can obtain the link by registering here. All students and scholars of political philosophy (and related disciplines) are welcome!