Political Friendship and the Good Life: Two Liberal Arguments Against Perfectionism: 61 (Law and Philosophy Library, 61) - Hardcover

Zanetti, G.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9041118810 ISBN 13: 9789041118813

Publisher: Springer, 2002

Synopsis

The main subject of this book is the rather fascinating link between an acceptable concept of political whole and its legal and moral implications. When we face this problem, we find that widespread categories like `happiness' and "friendship" are at the same time necessary and dangerous, crucial and elusive. In order to make the case against the so-called Legal Enforcement of Morals, and to grasp the complex relationship between law and morality from a liberal point of view, it is not enough to reject a pattern of happiness, or of human flourishing, from which to draw normative instructions for men and women - it must be recognized that integration of individuals in the comprehensive groups, as well as in the political whole itself, is not the only valuable option. The fragile value of a relative lack of integration, a "right to unhappiness", turns out to be, eventually, what makes the weak, but decisive, moral primacy of liberal societies.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9041118810
• ISBN 13: 9789041118813
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 146