Empirical and Normative Without a Universal Human Nature

Abstract

I rally behind Floyd’s call to arms for an approach to political philosophy based on the broad hope ‘that we can successfully treat certain forms of human action as expressions [of] normative preferences ripe for conversion into political principles’. I have doubts, however, about his use of social science: it is too selective and is selected on the basis of the avoidance of two social evils and thus does not answer the fundamental questions of political philosophy about the good life and a polity that is based on positive ideals and aspirations. Nor do I see that the avoidance of the normative aloofness of ‘continental’ critical theory requires the postulation of a universal human nature, a postulate that in any case is unavailable.