Putting Morality Back Into Politics

Richard D. Ryder

96 pp., £8.95 / $17.90, 184540047X (pbk.), July 2006

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  • Table of Contents
  • Introduction (Sample Chapter)
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    Machiavelli almost succeeded in removing morality from European politics and, indeed, since his day it has sometimes been assumed that morality and politics are separate. Ryder argues that the time has come for public policies to be seen to be based upon moral objectives. Politicians should be expected routinely to justify their policies with open moral argument.

    In Part I, Ryder sketches an overview of contemporary political philosophy as it relates to the moral basis for politics, and Part 2 suggests a way of putting morality back into politics, along with a clearer emphasis upon scientific evidence.

    The author was Mellon Professor at Tulane University. Trained as a psychologist at Cambridge, Columbia and Edinburgh Universities, Ryder has also been a professional political campaigner and a lobbyist, especially in relation to animal welfare. His PhD (Cambridge), is in Political and Social Science.

    "Ryder comments on an impressive range of political and moral philosophers from Plato, Aristotle, and Machiavelli to Hobbes, Locke, and Jefferson and to Rawls, Singer, Nozick."  Christopher H. Ramey, PsycCRITIQUES
     

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