Global Ethics and Global Common Goods

Patrick Riordan

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781472580863
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Ethics & Moral Philosophy

Patrick Riordan takes a different approach to the questions of global ethics by following the direction of questioning initially pioneered by Aristotle; for him the most basic question of ethics is 'what is the good life'? So in the context of contemporary global ethics the Aristotelian questioner wonders about the good life on a global scale. Global Ethics and Global Common Goods fills the gap in existing literature caused by the neglect of the topic of the good in global ethics. Beginning by outlining answers to questions such as 'what is good?' and 'is there a highest good?' Riordan demonstrates the value of a common good perspective in matters of universal human rights and their institutions and practices, the study of international relations and the construction of global institutions, and debates about global justice between cosmopolitanism, nationalism and economic globalization. Philosophical questions provoked by these debates are identified and pursued, such as the question of a common human nature which seems presupposed by the language of universal rights. For experienced students of political philosophy and international relations this is a crucial text in the literature exploring the possibilities for politics on a world scale, while the perspective of the common good adds a new and distinctive dimension to current debates on global security and the challenges of managing conflict.

Index

abstraction 6, 13–14, 16–17, 28, 32–3, 88

aesthetics 13–14, 16, 20, 22, 33, 55

America 116, 125–9

analogy 5–7, 17, 47, 49, 53–4, 72–5, 86, 91, 167, 201

anarchy 114–20, 129

Anderson 5, 20–2, 46, 53, 88

Anscombe 22–3

Aristotle

on cooperation for common goods 73–5, 85, 210

on ethics 3

on eudaimonia 23, 52

on the good 5, 12–13, 73–5, 85, 210

on the good life 5, 53, 88

on the highest good 30, 45, 49, 88, 207

on politics and the shared view of the good 29, 45, 58, 73, 85, 207, 210

associative obligation 7, 168

attitudes of valuation 6, 25

Augustine 89

authority 4, 33, 46–7, 114–16, 120–1, 206

civil 42, 114

collective 7, 73, 169

global 60, 73, 169

legitimate 115–16, 120

public 4, 73

sovereign 127, 129, 167, 169

autonomy 24, 29, 32, 47, 53, 55, 60, 128, 146, 181, 194, 199, 204, 208

Axelrod 133

Barrett 136–40

Beitz 7, 156, 181, 196–8

Berlin 45–6

Bingham 39–41, 125

Böckenförde 96

Böckenfö...