Böcker av George Klosko

Whether we should obey the law is a question that affects everyone's day-to-day life, from traffic laws to taxes. Most people obey out of habit, but the question remains: why are we morally required to do so? If we fail to obey, the state may enforce compliance, but is it right for it to do this, and if so, why?In this book, George Klosko, a renowned authority on political obligation, skillfully probes these questions. He considers various prominent theories of obligation and shows why they are unconvincing, contending that only an approach that interweaves multiple principles, rooted in "fair play," is fully persuasive.Klosko develops the fullest statement of his own well-known theory of political obligation while providing a clear overview of the subject. The result is both an essential introductory text for students of political theory and philosophy and a cutting-edge, original contribution to the debate.

Jacobins and Utopians examines the politics of ideal societies and the means necessary to bring them into existence. George Klosko reveals how discussions of fundamental moral reform lead inexorably to questions of political power. Machiavelli classically articulated the claim that unarmed prophets go to the gallows. Themes of revolution play an integral role in Klosko's study-as the figures he explores frequently concerned themselves with the means of becoming armed. Klosko focuses particularly on what he calls "e;educational realism"e; as a means of channeling political power in pursuit of moral reform. If people are to become fit for an ideal society they must be subjected to intensive education, which in turn requires control of the educational environment and, consequently, of society as a whole. Klosko identifies Plato as an educational realist and contends that Plato, contrary to his reputation as a pure utopian, actually provides a searching analysis of the role of political power in fundamental moral reform. In addition to Plato, Jacobins and Utopians canvasses strategies of moral reform proposed by Plutarch's Lycurgus, Socrates, Thomas More, Machiavelli, Robespierre, Saint-Just, Bakunin, Charles Fourier, Marx, and Lenin. Klosko analyzes both the advantages of Jacobinism as a political strategy and its inherent flaws.

In this work, the author systematically formulates a principle of fairness that specifies a set of conditions which grounds existing political obligations and bridges the gap between the abstract accounts of political principles and the actual beliefs of political actors.