Justification and Legitimacy
Essays on Rights and Obligations

This book contains essays by A. John Simmons, perhaps the most innovative and creative of today's political philosophers.

A. John Simmons (Author)

9780521793650, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 30 October 2000

292 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.43 kg

"...there is no question that this is an extraordinarily fine collection of essays. Whatever one thinks of the Lockean approach, every political theorist should read this book; it is clearly written, tightly argued, and concerns core issues in political philosophy. In short, it is a model of how political philosophy should be done." Ethics

A. John Simmons is widely regarded as one of the most innovative and creative of today's political philosophers. His work on political obligation is regarded as definitive and he is also internationally respected as an interpreter of John Locke. The characteristic features of clear argumentation and careful scholarship that have been hallmarks of his philosophy are everywhere evident in this collection. The essays focus on the problems of political obligation and state legitimacy as well as on historical theories of property and justice. Cumulatively the collection presents a distinctive social and political philosophy, exploring the nature of our most fundamental rights and obligations, and displaying the power and plausibility of Lockean ideal theory.

Introduction
1. The principle of fair play
2. Fair play and political obligation: twenty years later
3. The obligations of citizens and the justification of conscription
4. Associative political obligations
5. External justifications and institutional roles
6. Philosophical anarchism
7. Justification and legitimacy
8. 'Denisons' and 'Aliens': Locke's problem of political consent
9. Human rights and world citizenship: the universality of Human Rights in Kant and Locke
10. Original-acquisition justifications of private property
11. Historical rights and fair shares
12. Makers' rights.

Subject Areas: Law [L], Political science & theory [JPA], History of Western philosophy [HPC]