Oxford University Press, 2020
“The work is exceptionally good. Indeed, it may well become—I think it should—a classic. In any case, it clearly deserves a wide audience by virtue of its important insights into the nature of integrity, the ease with which it traverses a wide range of disciplines (ethics, political theory, American politics, media studies), its analytic rigor, and its dexterity in bringing theory and practice together…I do not think that it is going too far to say that [Nili] has created a new subject matter for us.” — Marion Smiley, Perspectives on Politics
“[G]enuinely original…Nili speaks to some of the most pressing political questions of our age in a unique and philosophically provocative way…a rich and analytically sophisticated work…Integrity, Personal and Political will drive the discussion of integrity in moral and political philosophy for many years to come.” — Edward Hall, The Review of Politics
This book pursues two main aims. First, taking on entrenched forms of philosophical skepticism concerning integrity’s moral significance, I argue that a democratic polity not only has its own morally important integrity, but has integrity that is easier to defend in comparison to the integrity of an individual person. Second, I explore multiple ways in which ideas regarding personal and political integrity relate to one another, and derive practical implications for both individual and collective conduct, bearing on a variety of contested ethical issues in public life. These issues range from tragic foreign policy choices, through the dangers that media demagogues lacking integrity pose to the integrity of liberal democracy, to highly controversial public monuments, commemorating political figures whose integrity is intensely disputed.
The book’s preface and introduction are below (downloadable).
Loading...
Reload document 
Open in new tab