Paradoxes of Political Ethics: From Dirty Hands to the Invisible Hand

by John M. Parrish

• ISBN13: 9780521873550
• ISBN10: 052187355X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-12-10
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

How do the hard facts of political responsibility shape and constrain the demands of ethical life? That question lies at the heart of the problem of 'dirty hands' in public life. Those who exercise political power often feel they must act in ways which would otherwise be considered immoral: indeed, paradoxically, they sometimes feel that it would be immoral of them not to perform or condone such acts as killing or lying. John Parrish offers the first wide-ranging account of how this important philosophical problem emerged and developed, tracing it - and its proposed solutions - from ancient Greece through the Enlightenment. His central argument is that many of our most familiar concepts and institutions - from Augustine's interiorized ethics, to Hobbes's sovereign state, to Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' understanding of the modern commercial economy - were designed partly as responses to the ethical problem of dirty hands in public life.

Table of Contents

Introduction

For the sake of the city

Two cities and two loves

Renaissance dilemmas

Hobbes's choice

Dirty hands commercialized

How dirty hands become invisible: Adam Smith's solution

Conclusion

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