| The subject of this thesis is the political thought of Michael Walzer,a contemporary American political philosoper.Trying to present in its entirety the inherent logic of Walzer’s political thought,the thesis unscrambles his main propositions and arguments on three topics:interpretative method,distributive justice and just war.The reason why Walzer consciously uses the interpretative method is a understanding about human,human society and intellectual’s duties in the society,that is,the human behaviors are decided by norms,standards and values created by societies,which were contained in various actual social cultures and practices;the intellectual’s duty is to interpret norms,standards and values that have been accepted and followed,rather than abandoning the actual exsisting social moralities and discovering or creating new moralities as the ground of social criticism.Walzer applies the interpretive method to two subjects,distributive justice and just war.His main idea about distributive justice is that the judgement of a distubution of particular good is just or unjust depends on whether or not it accords with the social meaning of this kind of good,hence there is no single abstract distributive principle that can be applied to every society and every distributive sphere.If each kind of good is distributed according to the principle contained in their social meanings,the distribution will be just.The result of just distribution will realize equality among social members.This equality is“complex equality”rather than“simple equality",that is to say,every one is the same or every one gets the same things.By interpreting the meanings of various good in the west society,Walzer reached his own conclusion about the distributive "here and now",and then criticized the distributive practices in the contemporary American society.On the subject of just war,Walzer argued that it is possible and necessary to use moral discourse in the sphere of war.Using the European traditional just war language,he interpreted the values and moral norms implied in the arguments about war,and constructed an integrated discourse paradigm including jus ad bellum,jus in bello and jus post bellum.He used the paradigm to criticize the contemporary practices of war and modified it according to the changing circumstances.Now it became one of the main discourse paradigms in the west.The argument of the thesis is that there is an inner link between Walzer’s political practices and his methodology,his way of argumentation and his concerns.In Walze’s view,the intellectual’s right path to realize their social ideal is to influence the opinions and attitude of the social members and then the political decisions through social criticism.So the criticism must appeal to their deep common understanding.The philosophers must interpret their common understanding in the most convincible way.The basic way of social criticism is to show the people that the social practices have deviated the accepted deep values,norms and principles.The only way to know these values principles and norms is pressing close to particular society and participating the social practices and political debates,in other words,to be an engaged philosopher or connected critic.What is the start point of political philosophy?Walzer gave his own answer,and he practiced the answer for 40 years.Walzer’s political thoughts and practices are very useful for anyone commited to public affairs and academic. |
