G.A. Cohen and the Logic of Egalitarian Congruence
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18740/S40P48Abstract
In this article, I argue that G. A. Cohen’s defense of the feminist slogan, “The personal is political”, his argument against Rawls’s restriction of principles of justice to the basic structure of society, depends for its intelligibility on the ability to distinguish—with reasonable but perhaps not perfect precision—between those situations in which what Nancy Rosenblum has called “the logic of congruence” is validly invoked and those in which it is not. More importantly, I will be suggesting that the philosophical shape of Cohen’s critique makes it difficult for him to supply the required criterion, and that the methodological “intuitionism” he claims to be committed to is at odds with his larger argument against Rawls concerning the subject of justice. Dans cet article, je maintiens que la défense par G.A. Cohen du slogan féministe ‘ce qui est personnel est politique’, son argument contre la restriction des principes de justice de Rawls à la structure basique de société, dépend pour son intelligibilité de la capacité à distinguer – avec une précision raisonnable mais peut-être pas parfaite – entre ces situations où ce que Nancy Rosenblum a appelé ‘la logique de congruence’ est invoquée avec validité et celles où elle ne l’est pas. Plus fondamentalement, je suggère que la forme philosophique de la critique de Cohen ne lui permet pas de fournir le critère de distinction approprié et que l’ « intuitionnisme » méthodologique auquel il se dit fidèle est en contradiction avec son argument général contre Rawls au sujet de la justice.Downloads
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