Rule of Law Through The Mirror Glass – Is The New 2020 Enlargement Methodology a Pre-Accession TEU Article 7 Mechanism?

The rule of law in the EU is a very complex concept due to its nature, different understanding and its diverse practical implementation, which has led to rule of law backsliding. In parallel, the rule of law represents a crucial pillar of the conditionality policy of new accession processes. The EU’s recent enlargement methodology introduced more stringent and conditional criteria for progress. This resulted in similarities between TEU Article 7 sanctioning mechanism and the new enlargement methodology that implies elaborate sanctions approach for candidate countries in cases of values’ breaches, backsliding, stagnation and lagging behind. The EU polity has, therefore, taken advantage of the empiric knowledge about the rule of law within its own borders and in the enlargement countries, constantly moving between the thin and the thick concept of the rule of law. The two processes have been feeding into each other, therefore, resulting in a growing convergence.

Practical Concepts

This paper is a successor to the author’s ‘In Defence of Thick Concepts’. It asks first whether all thick concepts have a default valence. It then considers how to account for the combination of the descriptive and the evaluative (which is sometimes called ‘interpenetration’) in a thick concept, and suggests that the so-called ‘no-priority’ view fails to do this. We might also wonder why the descriptive element is not always capable of separate instantiation. Various alternative moves are considered. The paper offers a considerably more varied list of supposedly thick concepts than is normal. It ends by suggesting that thick concepts are evaluative because competence with them involves grasp of their evaluative point.

Introduction

The Introduction summarizes the basic tenets of Target Centred Virtue Ethics. It begins with an account of the fundamental concepts of virtue ethics in general and shows that virtue ethics is a family of normative ethical theory with several genera and species. The target-centred version of virtue ethics developed in the book is one species of virtue ethics opposed to the orthodox neo-Aristotelian version in many respects. Central to all forms of virtue ethics is ‘Thick Concept Centralism’, and the ‘Centrality of Virtuousness’, whether the notion of virtuousness is applied to character, actions, rules or motives. The Introduction outlines these theses, and the notion of the targets of virtues, before summarizing the contents of the book, including the metaphysics of Target Centred Virtue Ethics, the nature of Target Centred Virtue Ethics, and broad issues surrounding the application of Target Centred Virtue Ethics.

Thick Concept Centralism and Objectivity

This chapter defends the objectivity of ethics against Bernard Williams’ claim to the contrary. According to Williams, understandings of ethics through the thick concepts (such as patience, humility, justice) are relative to “insider perspectives.” A form of relativism threatens. This defence is illustrated by an interpretation of Nietzsche who transcends the insider perspective in his attack on “slave morality.” On the interpretation offered, Nietzsche can be read as an objectivist (suitably understood) about virtue and vice. Much vice in particular is, for example, expressive of resentment, psychoanalytically understood; is reactive and weak and in the service of a morality that is altruistic in a highly problematic sense. My interpretation of Nietzsche, I argue, has implications for the Williams’ critique. It allows for a way of transcending the “insider perspective” by appeal to the human sciences, an appeal that Nietzsche’s own form of naturalism in ethics itself makes.

What’s in a name? Contestation and backlash against international norms and institutions

Norm research has struggled to leave behind its liberal progressive perspective on norms. It has turned its attention towards contestation and norms erosion. Still, in a number of studies contestation is not merely an analytic concept but a normative concept as well, describing a problematic development of norms. Plainly, contestation is often seen as a form of political backlash. This is problematic because the bulk of normative change proceeds in the form of contestation, so we need to be able to distinguish the two. Studying the recurring and radicalising contestation of the International Criminal Court, this article demonstrates the intimate relationship between contestation and backlash. It argues that while backlash might be fruitfully applied to the study of norm contestation, its added value for norms research is linked to the normative connotation of regressive politics, that is, a ‘thick’ concept of backlash.

Blasphemy As A Thick Concept

Thick concepts have been central in metaethical debates over the last few decades, for instance in the controversy between cognitivism and non-cognitisivism or in the fact/value distinction. They are characterised as world guided, action guiding and community shared. In this paper, thick concepts are used to analyse case law on blasphemy from the European Court of Human Rights. When conducting this analysis, the test of civility proposed by Habermas and Rawls will also be applied. Public reason obligates the use of reasons accessible to all, that is to say not with a particular/thick meaning, in the public sphere.

Thick Concepts and Moral Revisionism in Plato’s Gorgias: Arguing About Something There Can Be No Argument About

David Furley has suggested that we think of Callicles’ immoralism as attacking a thick concept. I take up this suggestion and apply it to the argument of Plato’s Gorgias more generally. I show that the discussion between Socrates, Gorgias and Polus, which prepares the ground for Callicles, is precisely addressing the thickness of the concept of justice: it reveals that this concept is both descriptive and evaluative and that formulating a revisionist position about justice is therefore extremely difficult. Callicles’ strategy is best read as a response to this difficulty, which sets the stage for Socrates’ revisionist account of justice.

Sport as a Thick Cluster Concept

The dominant view in the philosophy of sport maintains that sports constitute a true subset of games—in particular, that sports are competitive games that involve a physical component, such as physical exertion or the exercise of gross motor skills. This chapter argues that the dominant view is mistaken and proposes in its stead an account of sport as a thick cluster concept. Sport is a thick concept because it requires the application of what this chapter terms “warranted seriousness.” And it is a cluster concept because such features as game-ness (or contrivance), physicality, and competitiveness bear constitutively on whether an activity is a sport, but none of these factors is individually necessary. The chapter concludes by sketching possible implications of the thick cluster account of sport for normative questions regarding the virtue of sportsmanship and the proper interpretation of sport rules.

Tarekat Hizib Nahdlatul Wathan Dan Perannya Dalam Perpolitikan Di Lombok

Tarekat is a Sufi brotherhood in which it contains and practices sufistic principles. In Sufism,there is a very thick concept, namely zuhud. Zuhud is the emptiness of search, which limits his desire to gain the world. From this it can be seen that the Sufic tradition should be reluctant to desire the world, including politics. However, the Hizib Nahdlatul Wathan as a tarekat appeared to be very active in politics, even the founder and Tarekat murshid Hizib Nahdlatul Wathan became a major driver in politics in Lombok. This is interesting, on the one hand the Hizib Nahdlatul Wathan is a tarekat, but on the other hand it looks very active in the politics of Lombok. Therefore, the authors are interested in studying more about the Hizib Nahdlatul Wathan and its role in politics in Lombok. There are two problem formulations in this article, namely; what is the concept of teaching the Hizib Nahdlatul Wathan Order? What is the religious foundation of the Hizib Nahdlatul Wathan Order in its political activities in Lombok? To answer the two formulations of the problem the author uses a literature review and interview research method. In addition, the author also uses two theories to dissect the formulation of the problem, namely the tarekat theory and the tarekat and political theory of Martin van Bruinessen. The tarekat theory the author uses to answer the first problem statement. While the theory of tarekat and politics of Martin van Bruinessen, the author uses it to answer the problem statement number two.

Thick Concepts

The discussion up to here has focused on central, or thin, normative concepts. The present chapter focuses on thick concepts and discusses how the conceptual framework introduced can be used to characterize what it is for a concept to be thick, as well as how taking thick concepts into account might problematize matters. In the discussion, the notion of an objectionable thick concept plays a central role. In connection with the discussion of thick concepts, certain related matters are discussed: the distinction between robust and formal normativity, and the question of how to understand epistemic normativity. A suggestion regarding what it is for a property to be thick is presented.