Public Ethics for Real People Toleration, Equal Respect, and Democratic Distortions

This book develops an innovative paradigm of public ethics that provides a unique insight into three central themes – recognition, social conflicts and democratic distortions – while critically celebrating the work of Anna Elisabetta Galeotti. In honor of her seventieth birthday, this edited collection brings together leading scholars in the field of normative political philosophy to reason upon the main strands of her research. The volume envisages a general paradigm of public ethics to deal with social conflicts that involve structural dynamics and deliberative deficits. While addressing diverse yet interrelated topics, all the contributors demonstrate a commitment to the ideal that, in the construction and reform of social and political institutions, respect for individuals as the makers of their own lives should act as the guiding principle. Against this backdrop, this volume strikes a difficult-to-reach balance between refined theorizing over classical themes of the liberal tradition and the ability to open these classic themes to new strands of research. The collection deals with crucial contemporary challenges to the democratic order, such as democratic backsliding and the breach of social trust, legal and democratic fights over free speech, multicultural clashes in highly diverse societies, and reparation for historical wrongs.

Introduction.-Part I: Public Ethics and its Challenges.- Chapter 1. The Toolkit of Public Ethics.- Chapter 2. The Crisis of Normativity.-Chapter 3. Autonomy for Real People.-Part II: Recognition and Social Conflicts.- Chapter 4. Recognition as Representative Claim.- Chapter 5. Recognition as Legitimization and Second-Personal Justice.- Chapter 6. Galeotti on Multicultural Recognition: The Case of The Danish Cartoons and Quran Burnings.-Part III: Democratic Reasoning and Collective Distortions.- Chapter 7. Can the Rule of Law Meet the Hobbes Challenge? Democracy and the Rule of Law.-Chapter 8. Like the Racist Uncle at the Christmas Dinner Table’. Democracy, Hate Speech, and Gender Critical Beliefs.- Chapter 9. Galeotti v. Mills about Non-Ideal Theory: A Defense of Reparatory Justice.- Chapter 10. Galeotti on Self-Deception.

Enrico Biale is Assistant Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Piemonte Orientale. He is the author of Interessi democratici e ragioni partigiane. Una concezione politica della democrazia (2018) and Dilemmi politici (2010).

Federica Liveriero is Assistant Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Pavia.  She is the author of Relational Liberalism: Democratic Co-Authorship in a Pluralistic World (2023) and Decisioni pubbliche e disaccordo. Giustificazioni e compromessi tra pari epistemici (2017).

Roberta Sala is Full Professor of Political Philosophy at the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan. She is the author of La verità sospesa. Ragionevolezza e irragionevolezza nella filosofia politica di John Rawls (2012) and others.