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ohn Rawls is widely regarded as one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century, and his work has permanently shaped the nature and terms of moral and political philosophy, deploying a robust and specialized vocabulary that reaches beyond philosophy to political science, economics, sociology, and law. This volume is a complete and accessible guide to Rawls' vocabulary, with over 200 alphabetical encyclopaedic entries written by the world's leading Rawls scholars. From 'basic structure' to 'burdened society', from 'Sidgwick' to 'strains of commitment', and from 'Nash point' to 'natural duties', the volume covers the entirety of Rawls' central ideas and terminology, with illuminating detail and careful cross-referencing. It will be an essential resource for students and scholars of Rawls, as well as for other readers in political philosophy, ethics, political science, sociology, international relations and law.

This paper examines the various ways in which nonideal theory responds to noncompliance with ideal principles of justice. Taking Rawls' definition of nonideal theory as my point of departure, I propose an understanding of this concept as comprising two subparts: Complementary nonideal theory responds to deliberate and avoidable noncompliance and consists mainly of theories of civil disobedience, rebellion, and retribution. Substitutive nonideal theory responds to nondeliberate and unavoidable noncompliance and consists mainly of theories of transition and caretaking. I further argue that a special case of substitutive nonideal theory may arise when noncompliance is a result of a lack of motivation among citizens. This situation, I suggest, calls for nonideal theorizing (1) when our aim is to evaluate the political actions undertaken by specific members of a society (in particular the ruling elite) whose set of feasible options is constrained as a result of others' lack of motivation and (2) when a situation of mutually reinforcing distrust and noncooperation—sometimes called a "social trap"—constrains the feasible option set of the entire population. The main advantage of the twofold conceptualization of nonideal theory is that it bridges the theoretical gap between actor-oriented and situation-based accounts of justice: It allows us to preserve the term ideal justice for justice under minimal feasibility constraints, while recognizing that a situation where all agents comply with their duties must in some sense be characterized as just.

The article gives conceptual clarification on a distinction between ideal and
nonideal theory by analyzing John Rawls? theory as presented in his books ?A
Theory of Justice? and ?The Law of Peoples.? The article tries to show the
importance of ideal theory, while at the same time pointing out that the
distinction, ideal and nonideal, needs further qualification. Further, the
article also introduces the distinction of normative and descriptive into
ideal and consequently nonideal theory. Through this four-fold distinction it
is easier to establish the function of each theory and the separation of
work-fields between philosophers, politicians and lawyers.

Abstract:This essay discusses the relation between ideal theory and two forms of political
moralism identified by Bernard Williams, structural and enactment views. It
argues that ideal theory, at least in the sense Rawls used that term, only makes
sense for structural forms of moralism. These theories see their task as
describing the constraints that properly apply to political agents and
institutions. As a result, they are primarily concerned with norms that govern
action. In contrast, many critiques of ideal theory are structured and motivated
by their commitment to an enactment model of political theorizing. This instead
sees political agents and institutions as instruments for producing or promoting
better states of affairs. Enactment models treat the evaluations that rank
different states of affairs as justificatorily basic, rather than norms
governing action on which structural models focus. This reveals an important
feature of debates about ideal theory. Whether ideal theory is capable of
appropriately guiding action will depend on what the criteria for appropriately
guiding action are, about which different theorists have importantly different
views. For example, some popular strategies for defending ideal theory fail,
while it may be much less clear that some alternatives to ideal theory can
provide action guidance than their advocates claim.

Abstract:This essay discusses and criticizes the claim that normative political theory can be (justifiably and fruitfully) divided into two parts—a part having to do with ideal theory which assumes full compliance and abstracts away from issues having to do with implementation and, contrasting with this, a nonideal part having to do with implementation and with rules and institutions appropriate for conditions of partial compliance. On this conception of ideal theory, empirical facts about human behavior and motivation, connected to issues surrounding compliance and implementation, are irrelevant to ideal theory, although such facts can be relevant to the nonideal part of normative theory. I argue against this conception, holding instead that such empirical facts are relevant to most or all of normative political theory, including "fundamental" normative principles.

Even though social engineering has gained a bad reputation, due to new possibilities in the information age, it may be time to reconsider Karl Popper's conception of "piecemeal social engineering." Piecemeal social engineering is not only an element within Popper's open society. It also connects his political philosophy to his philosophy of science and his evolutionary epistemology. Furthermore, it seems to fit well into the search for implementation strategies for policies and social actions in the context of nonideal theory. Nevertheless, this does not necessarily undermine the need for political ideals and first-order principles, which are inhabitants of "World 3."

Moral theory has generally focused on resolving ethical dilemmas by identifying ethically sound options. Whether the focus is on consequences, duties, principles or virtues, ethical cases are often approached in ways that assume morally sound solutions can be found and followed. Such 'ideal morality' assumes that moral goodness is always possible, leaving people confident they have done the right thing. Such an approach becomes inadequate in disaster settings where any good solution is often difficult to see. This paper examines recent work on nonideal moral theory as a useful model for disaster bioethics. This approach views moral dilemmas as situations where no choice is ideal and every option involves some element of unavoidable wrongdoing. Rather than straining for ideal answers, this approach acknowledges that sometimes the lesser of two evils is the best that can be done. Such situations inevitably lead to feelings of regret or guilt, commonly encountered in discussions of disaster bioethics. This paper explores the practical implications of nonideal approaches for disaster responders working in tragic situations.

Examining the debate about animals in the language of justice this book develops both ideal and nonideal theories of justice for animals. It rejects the abolitionist animal rights position in favour of a revised version of animal rights centering on sentience