What has been celebrated as a revival of political philosophy in the last
decades is in fact a mere extension of moral philosophy; it is moral
reasoning applied to the treatment of political institutions. This is
manifest in the absence in current liberal theorizing of a proper
distinction between moral discourse and political discourse. To
recover the normative aspect of politics, moral concerns about
impartiality and unanimity are introduced into political argumenta-
tion. The result is a public morality for liberal societies, a morality
which is deemed to be 'political' because it is 'minimal' and avoids
engaging with controversial conceptions of the good and because it
provides the cement for social cohesion.
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