In this talk, I critically engage with the “political realist” movement developed by Bernard Williams. Although I sympathize with the realist intuition that politics is distinct from moral philosophy or applied morality, a concern realists raise against recent trends in political philosophy, I challenge the sharp conceptual barrier realists erect between, on the one hand, politics and realism and, on the other, moralism and liberalism. Drawing on Carl Schmitt’s state theory, I clarify this realist intuition while avoiding some conceptual problems realism currently runs into. I draw conclusions from my analysis by arguing that – pace both Williams and Schmitt – politics and liberalism are compatible. I sketch the framework for a political liberalism and connect its normative arguments to constrained democracy, a constitutional mechanism that prioritizes a liberal basic structure over democratic procedures.

Philosophy Seminar Series
Date: Thursday, 2 June 2016
Time: 11am – 1pm
Venue: AS3 #05-23
Speaker: Dr. Benjamin A. Schupmann
Moderator: A/P Loy Hui Chieh

About the Speaker:

Dr. Schupmann is a Post Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Political Science at the National University of Singapore. He is currently finalizing his book manuscript Carl Schmitt’s State and Constitutional Theory: A Critical Analysis, which is under contract with Oxford University Press for its Oxford Constitutional Theory Series. He received his PhD from Columbia University in the City of New York in February 2015, following the successful defense of his dissertation.