J. East China Norm. Univ. Philos. Soc. Sci ›› 2003, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (6): 1-11, 118.doi: 10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5579.2003.06.001

   

Three Types of Universalism in International Politics——A Comparison of Rawls' and Habermas' International Theories after the Iraq War

Shi-jun TONG   

  • Received:2003-09-07 Online:2003-11-01 Published:2025-12-15

Abstract:

Three are some parallels between Jurgen Habermas' recent criticisms at the notion of "liberal nationalism" in the context of the U. S. global strategy and at John Rawls' basic theoretical design of justice. Does this mean that Rawls' position of international issues is close to liberal nationalism or that Habermas' criticism of Rawls is ill founded, at least not fits to Rawls' international political theory? This paper gives a negative answer to the both questions, and argues that the reason lies in that Rawls's political theory as a kind of "universalism of virtual dialogue" intermediates between liberal nationalistic "monologic universalism" and Habermas' "dialogic universalism".

Key words: universalism, unilateralism, liberalism, discourse theory, Rawls, Habermas

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