What's the Point of Political Philosophy? by Jonathan Floyd;

Author:Jonathan Floyd;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781509524228
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Published: 2019-07-29T00:00:00+00:00

3.4 Ordering

So far, we have seen how both analysis and critique work, with the former setting the targets and the latter pulling the trigger. This takes us to our third task, ordering. Here, as noted already, the aim is to build on our earlier analytical work by telling us exactly how to manage the problems and variables it reveals. Here, in turn, the aim is to build on earlier critical work by telling us exactly which answer to our subject’s organising question should guide us, once all that critique is done. Yet how are we supposed to do that? How are we to know that we have found the right political position? How can we tell that we have done our ordering correctly?

Well, without prejudging the position we end up with, what we ultimately need is an ordering that meets at least two criteria.55 First, it will have to be convinc­ ing, in the sense that whoever would have to live with it finds it more compelling than any of the alternatives. If I say to you, for example, to adopt communism because I happen to like the colour red, then I would expect you to wait for more compelling reasons. Second, it will have to be meaningful, in the sense that our answer is precise enough to give substantial guidance. If I say to you, for example, that we need a political system that ensures clean air or that avoids human extinction, then that is just too vague.

Why, though, do I use this odd term ‘ordering’ here, given that many would think ‘arguments’, ‘theories’, ‘prescriptions’, or ‘visions’ would work better? The reason is that none of those is quite right. One can have a theory of liberty, an argument about the origins of our view of liberty, or a vaguely liberal vision or prescription that is in no way precise or complete enough to give us the political guidance we need. Ordering, by contrast, with its connotations of precision and prior­ ity, keeps our eyes on the prize. In particular, it reminds us that simply saying, in this or that book or article, that we ‘urgently’ need to promote this or that value or principle is just not enough. One often sees this in our subject, yet collectively, if this is all we have, it gives us nothing more than a list of vaguely important values, problems, or principles. By contrast, in both the ideal world and the real world, we need to know how to rank our ambitions when not all such ambitions can be fully realised.56 We need to know about our current world, not just that x is a shame or that introducing y would be nice, but also what would be, all things considered, a better overall way of organising things. We want, in other words – and this is another reason for using this term – an ordering that could define for us a political order.

We know, then, that we want to build on

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