Simmons' Account of Philosophical Anarchism (original) (raw)

Law Without Legitimacy or Justification? The Flawed Foundations of Philosophical Anarchism

Res Publica, 2011

In this article, I examine A. John Simmons's philosophical anarchism, and specifically, the problems that result from the combination of its three foundational principles: the strong correlativity of legitimacy rights and political obligations; the strict distinction between justified existence and legitimate authority; and the doctrine of personal consent, more precisely, its supporting assumptions about the natural freedom of individuals and the non-natural states into which individuals are born. As I argue, these assumptions, when combined with the strong correlativity and strict distinction theses, undermine Simmons's claim, which is central to his philosophical anarchism, that a state may be justified in enforcing the law, even if illegitimate or unjustified in existing.

Against Philosophical Anarchism (Law and Philosophy, 2020)

Law and Philosophy, 2020

Philosophical anarchists claim that all states lack political authority and are illegitimate , but that some states are nevertheless morally justified and should not be abolished. I argue that philosophical anarchism is either incoherent or collapses into either statism or political anarchism.

Anarchism and Philosophy: A Critical Introduction

Brill's Companion to Anarchism and Philosophy, ed. Nathan Jun, 2017

For use by the Author only | © 2018 Koninklijke Brill NV Disputes over the meaning of "anarchism" are sometimes reducible to disputes over specific definitions-as when Jones defines anarchism as a philosophy that rejects all authority as such, whereas Smith defines it more narrowly as a philosophy that regards all states as illegitimate. In this case, Jones and Smith agree on the general kind of which anarchism is a particular instance but disagree about how it differs from all other instances of that kind. This is in marked contrast with disputes over whether anarchism should be considered an ideology,4 a political philosophy,5 a social system,6 a theory of organization,7

(with J. Chapman), Anarchism and Political Philosophy An Introduction, Nomos Vol 19 Anarchism

Part I recognizes diversity of thinking appropriately by offeri several contrasting perspectives on anarchism. We open with Joh P. Clark's effort at definition. He discerns a theme common to all varieties of anarchist thought. "In both social and individualist anarchism. .. the view prevails that people have a great potential for voluntaristic action, and ability to overcome the use of violence and coercion." Of particular concern to Clark is that a definition take account of historical movements as well as theoretical formula tions. By considering both theory and practice, he says, the error of treating anarchist doctrines as inherently unrealistic and Utopian is avoided. "The distinctive characteristic of anarchist programs is that they institute an immediate movement in the direction of voluntarism and antiauthoritarianism." Central to Clark's defini tional analysis, then, is the idea that anarchism is just as much a call to action as it is a critique of the established order. In the next chapter, James M. Buchanan presents quite a different interpretation. In apparent contradistinction to Clark's

Anarchism: Philosophy & Praxis — A Bibliography

This bibliography has two conspicuous constraints: books, in English. While not exhaustive, it is nonetheless intended to be fairly comprehensive. I have included works on social movements, groups and organizations that may not be avowedly "anarchist" yet display many if not most of the ideological and behavioral features we have come to identify as "anarchist." I have not included the bulk of titles involving the theoretical application of a few anarchist ideas to topics in epistemology (or, for that matter, most areas of philosophy other than political philosophy and philosophy of education or pedagogy) and literary theory, nor will one find works of fiction that treat with intelligence and sympathy anarchist themes. I welcome suggestions for updated versions of this compilation. Readers may be interested in the following bibliographies with more or less family resemblance to this one: Beyond Capitalist-Attenuated Time: Freedom, Leisure, and Self-Realization; Blacks on the (Radical) Left; Contemporary Democratic Theory; The History, Theory & Praxis of the Left in the 1960s; Marx & Marxism; and Utopian Imagination, Thought & Praxis. "Of all the major traditions of political thought, the anarchists have probably been the most consistent advocates of an expansion of democracy throughout society and into the economy, and therefore have the most affinity with economic democracy. Unfortunately, much contemporary democratic theory largely ignores this tradition. Today anarchism is less a single cohesive political doctrine as it is a large family of those with similar convictions and aspirations: hostility toward unaccountable authority, distrust of hierarchy and power, and optimistic belief in the capacity of ordinary people to control their own lives and organize social relationships on the basis of freedom, equality, and solidarity."-Tom Malleson in After Occupy:

States as Instruments of Anarchism

Theory in Action, 2018

How can societies maximize equal liberty in the context of the modern sovereign state? While liberal democracy is widely recognized as the type of political regime most conducive to this goal, it fails to offer a vision of life beyond state power and lacks sufficient safeguards against socioeconomic inequality. Meanwhile, the traditional anarchist tendency to downplay differences across political regime types has coincided with a commitment to the prefigurative strategic principle that state power cannot be used as a means to the anarchist end. In turn, it will be argued that strict adherence to prefiguration weakens the impact of anarchism, for instance by increasing the risk of bad anarchy. Gradualist anarchism provides a corrective to these issues, but encounters the challenge of bad government traditionally emphasized by anarchists.

Review: Anarchism Revisited: A New Philosophy

Diacritics, 1978

One can well see how, beneath all the democratic and socialistic phrases and promises of Herr Marx's programme, there survives in his State everything that contributes to the truly despotic and brutal nature of all States, whatever their forms of government, and that in the last resort, the People's State so strongly recommended by Herr Marx, and the aristocratic-monarchic State maintained with such skill and power by Herr Bismarck, are completely identical in the nature of both their internal and external aims. Externally there is the same deployment of military power, which means conquest; internally, there is the same employment of armed forces, the last argument of all threatened political powers, against the masses who, tired of always believing, hoping, accepting and obeying, rise in rebellion.-Michael Bakunin GCS: It is not often our privilege to write on writers recently treated by Newsweek, Playboy (frangais), Der Spiegel, Time: Bernard-Henri L6vy,

Anarchism: A Conceptual Approach (Edited by Benjamin Franks, Nathan Jun, and Leonard Williams)

2018

Direct Action A theoretical and practical notion that appears in revolutionary trade unionism and in libertarian communism in the 19th century, direct action is one of the most relevant contributions that anarchism offers to (anti-)political science and social practice. However, we come across many difficulties when attempting to grasp anarchist direct action, which are mostly related with its constant hybridisation, diversity and multifaceted nature. My particular concern here is to show how and why direct action is for anarchists the prefigurative, unmediated activity initiated by the oppressed to overcome, albeit perhaps only temporarily or partially, repressive conditions. I argue that direct action is not an attack on the enemy: above all, it is an examination of what is human, a commitment to individual and collective possibilities.