This coming Monday's current projects will be: Lurara Ferracioli, Princeton,
The Anarchist's Myth Philosophical anarchists have made their living criticizing theories of state legitimacy and the duty to obey the law. The most prominent theories of state legitimacy have been called into doubt by the anarchist’s insistence that citizens’ lack of consent to the state renders the whole justificatory enterprise futile. Autonomy requires consent, they argue, and justification must respect autonomy. In this essay, I want to call into question the weight of consent in protecting our capacity for autonomy. I argue that if we care about all of the pre conditions for autonomy, then we have no choice but to leave the state of nature. This leaves the philosophical anarchist with a dilemma. If she truly cares about autonomy, then she must welcome the state. But if she wants to deny the legitimacy of the state because of the value of consent, then she needs to downplay the moral significance of autonomy in people’s lives. If autonomy matters, the state does too. If it doesn’t, then consent doesn’t. The philosophical anarchist can’t have it both ways. As usual we ail be in the common room, 1.00-2.30. Dr. Kristie Miller University of Sydney Senior Research Fellow School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry and The Centre for Time The University of Sydney Sydney Australia Room 407, A 14 [email protected] [email protected] Ph: +612 9036 9663 http://www.kristiemiller.net/KristieMiller2/Home_Page.html
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