Works by Joseph Raz
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- The Morality of Freedom.Joseph Raz -1986 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.Ranging over central issues of morals and politics and the nature of freedom and authority, this study examines the role of value-neutrality, rights, equality, ...
- (1 other version)Practical reason and norms.Joseph Raz -1975 - London: Hutchinson.Practical Reason and Norms focuses on three problems: In what way are rules normative, and how do they differ from ordinary reasons? What makes normative systems systematic? What distinguishes legal systems, and in what consists their normativity? All three questions are answered by taking reasons as the basic normative concept, and showing the distinctive role reasons have in every case, thus paving the way to a unified account of normativity. Rules are a structure of reasons to perform the required act (...) and an exclusionary reason not to follow some competing reasons. Exclusionary reasons are explained, and used to unlock the secrets of orders, promises, and decisions as well as rules. Games are used to exemplify normative systems. Inevitably, the analysis extends to some aspects of normative discourse, which is truth-apt, but with a diminished assertoric force. (shrink)
- From Normativity to Responsibility.Joseph Raz -2011 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.What are our duties or rights? How should we act? What are we responsible for? Joseph Raz examines the philosophical issues underlying these everyday questions. He explores the nature of normativity--the reasoning behind certain beliefs and emotions about how we should behave--and offers a novel account of responsibility.
- Engaging Reason: On the Theory of Value and Action.Joseph Raz -1999 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press UK.Joseph Raz presents a penetrating exploration of the interdependence of value, reason, and the will. These essays illuminate a wide range of questions concerning fundamental aspects of human thought and action. Engaging Reason is a summation of many years of original, compelling, and influential work by a major contemporary philosopher.
- The authority of law: essays on law and morality.Joseph Raz -1979 - New York: Oxford University Press.Legitimate authority -- The claims of law -- Legal positivism and the sources of law -- Legal reasons, sources, and gaps -- The identity of legal systems -- The institutional nature of law -- Kelsen's theory of the basic norm -- Legal validity -- The functions of law -- Law and value in adjudication -- The rule of law and its virtue -- The obligation to obey the law -- Respect for law -- A right to dissent? : civil disobedience (...) -- A right to dissent? : conscientious objection --The purity of the pure theory -- The argument from justice, or how not to reply to legal positivism. (shrink)
- Ethics in the public domain: essays in the morality of law and politics.Joseph Raz -1994 - New York: Oxford University Press.In the past twenty years Joseph Raz has consolidated his reputation as one of the most acute, inventive, and energetic scholars currently at work in analytic moral and political theory. This new collection of essays forms a representative selection of his most significant contributions to a number of important debates, including the extent of political duty and obligation, and the issue of self-determination. He also examines aspects of the common (and ancient) theme of the relations between law and morality. This (...) volume of essays, available in one volume for the first time, will be essential to legal philosophers and political theorists. (shrink)
- (2 other versions)The Morality of Freedom.Joseph Raz -1986 -Ethics 98 (4):850-852.
- Practical Reason and Norms.Joseph Raz -1975 -Law and Philosophy 12 (3):329-343.
- National self-determination.Avishai Margalit &Joseph Raz -1990 -Journal of Philosophy 87 (9):439-461.
- Engaging Reason.Joseph Raz -1999 -Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 66 (3):745-748.Joseph Raz presents a penetrating exploration of the interdependence of value, reason, and the will. These essays illuminate a wide range of questions concerning fundamental aspects of human thought and action. Engaging Reason is a summation of many years of original, compelling, and influential work by a major contemporary philosopher.
- The Myth of Instrumental Rationality.Joseph Raz -2005 -Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 1 (1):28.The paper distinguishes between instrumental reasons and instrumental rationality. It argues that instrumental reasons are not reasons to take the means to our ends. It further argues that there is no distinct form of instrumental reasoning or of instrumental rationality. In part the argument proceeds through a sympathetic examination of suggestions made by M. Bratman, J. Broome, and J. Wallace, though the accounts of instrumental rationality offered by the last two are criticised.
- (2 other versions)The Authority of Law.Joseph Raz -1979 -Mind 90 (359):441-443.
- Authority, Law and Morality.Joseph Raz -1985 -The Monist 68 (3):295-324.H. L. A. Hart is heir and torch-bearer of a great tradition in the philosophy of law which is realist and unromantic in outlook. It regards the existence and content of the law as a matter of social fact whose connection with moral or any other values is contingent and precarious. His analysis of the concept of law is part of the enterprise of demythologising the law, of instilling rational critical attitudes to it. Right from his inaugural lecture in Oxford (...) he was anxious to dispel the philosophical mist which he found in both legal culture and legal theory. In recent years he has shown time and again how much the rejection of the moralizing myths which accumulated around the law is central to his whole outlook. His essays on “Bentham and the Demystification of the Law” and on “The Nightmare and the Noble Dream” showed him to be consciously sharing the Benthamite sense of the excessive veneration in which the law is held in Common Law countries, and its deleterious moral consequences. His fear that in recent years legal theory has lurched back in that direction, and his view that a major part of its role is to lay the conceptual foundation for a cool and potentially critical assessment of the law are evident. (shrink)
- Value, Respect, and Attachment.Joseph Raz -2001 - New York: Cambridge University Press.The book is a contribution to the study of values, as they affect both our personal and our public life. It defends the view that values are necessarily universal, on the ground that that is a condition of their intelligibility. It does, however, reject most common conceptions of universality, like those embodied in the writings on human rights. It aims to reconcile the universality of value with the social dependence of value and the centrality to our life of deep attachments (...) to people and countries alike. Building from there, the book explores personal love, the value of life, and the fundamental duty of respect for people. (shrink)
- Facing diversity: The case of epistemic abstinence.Joseph Raz -1990 -Philosophy and Public Affairs 19 (1):3-46.
- The problem of authority: Revisiting the service conception.Joseph Raz -manuscriptThe problem I have in mind is the problem of the possible justification of subjecting one's will to that of another, and of the normative standing of demands to do so. The account of authority that I offered, many years ago, under the title of the service conception of authority, addressed this issue, and assumed that all other problems regarding authority are subsumed under it. Many found the account implausible. It is thin, relying on very few ideas. It may well (...) appear to be too thin, and to depart too far from many of the ideas that have gained currency in the history of reflection on authority. The present article modifies some aspects the account, and defends it against some criticism made against it. (shrink)
- Between authority and interpretation: on the theory of law and practical reason.Joseph Raz (ed.) -2009 - New York: Oxford University Press.Can there be a theory of law? -- Two views of the nature of the theory of law : a partial comparison -- On the nature of law -- The problem of authority : revisiting the service conception -- About morality and the nature of law -- Incorporation by law -- Reasoning with rules -- Why interpret? -- Interpretation without retrieval -- Intention in interpretation -- Interpretation : pluralism and innovation -- On the authority and interpretation of constitutions : some (...) preliminaries -- Postema on law's autonomy and public practical reasons : a critical comment. (shrink)
- The concept of a legal system.Joseph Raz -1970 - Oxford,: Clarendon Press.What does it mean to assert or deny the existence of a legal system? How can one determine whether a given law belongs to a certain legal system? What kind of structure do these systems have, that is--what necessary relations obtain between their laws? The examination of these problems in this volume leads to a new approach to traditional jurisprudential question, though the conclusions are based on a critical appraisal, particularly those of Bentham, Austin, Kelsen, and Hart.
- Human rights without foundations.Joseph Raz -2010 - In Samantha Besson & John Tasioulas,The philosophy of international law. New York: Oxford University Press.Using the accounts of Gewirth and Griffin as examples, the article criticises accounts of human rights as those are understood in human rights practices, which regard them as rights all human beings have in virtue of their humanity. Instead it suggests that (with Rawls) human rights set the limits to the sovereignty of the state, but criticises Rawls conflation of sovereignty with legitimate authority. The resulting conception takes human rights, like other rights, to be contingent on social conditions, and in (...) particular on the nature of the international system. (shrink)
- The Authority of Law: Essays on Law and Morality.David Lyons &Joseph Raz -1982 -Philosophical Review 91 (3):461.
- Authority and justification.Joseph Raz -1985 -Philosophy and Public Affairs 14 (1):3-29.
- Human Rights without Foundations.Joseph Raz -2010 - In Samantha Besson & John Tasioulas,The philosophy of international law. New York: Oxford University Press.Using the accounts of Gewirth and Griffin as examples, the article criticises accounts of human rights as those are understood in human rights practices, which regard them as rights all human beings have in virtue of their humanity. Instead it suggests that (with Rawls) human rights set the limits to the sovereignty of the state, but criticises Rawls conflation of sovereignty with legitimate authority. The resulting conception takes human rights, like other rights, to be contingent on social conditions, and in (...) particular on the nature of the international system. (shrink)
- On the nature of rights.Joseph Raz -1984 -Mind 93 (370):194-214.
- Voluntary Obligations and Normative Powers.Neil MacCormick &Joseph Raz -1972 -Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 46 (1):59 - 102.
- Value, Respect and Attachment.Joseph Raz -2003 -Philosophy 78 (305):430-432.No categories
- Practical reasoning.Joseph Raz (ed.) -1978 - New York: Oxford University Press.
- On the guise of the good.Joseph Raz -2010I will provisionally take the Guise of the Good thesis to consist of three propositions: (1) Intentional actions are actions performed for reasons, as those are seen by the agents. (2) Specifying the intention which makes an action intentional identifies central features of the reason(s) for which the action is performed. (3) Reasons for action are such reasons by being facts which establish that the action has some value. From these it is said to follow that (4) Intentional actions are (...) actions taken in, and because of, a belief that there is some good in them. I will examine reasons for, and objections to these theses, and offer a defence of a modified version of the thesis. (shrink)
- Instrumental Rationality: A Reprise.Joseph Raz -2005 -Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 1 (1):1-20.The paper distinguishes between instrumental reasons and instrumental rationality. It argues that instrumental reasons are not reasons to take the means to our ends. It further argues that there is no distinct form of instrumental reasoning or of instrumental rationality. In part the argument proceeds through a sympathetic examination of suggestions made by M. Bratman, J. Broome, and J. Wallace, though the accounts of instrumental rationality offered by the last two are criticised.
- The truth in particularism.Joseph Raz -2000 - In Brad Hooker & Margaret Olivia Little,Moral particularism. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 48--78.Particularism's model of explanation is challenged on the ground that a sensible intelligibility principle requires that there must be an explanation for the difference between a good and a bad action. Raz is concerned with what it is to be guided by reason, as well as with the results of the fact that reason can often undermine particular outcomes. What determines the moral status of an action must extend beyond what the agent's reason for acting is. It is argued that (...) there is a clear distinction between the evaluative and guiding functions of reasons. (shrink)
- Incommensurability and agency.Joseph Raz -1999 - InEngaging Reason: On the Theory of Value and Action. Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press UK. pp. 110-28.Human agents act for reasons that contribute to their good. However, in our explanation of why agents act for reasons that depend on what they value, we encounter the problem of situations in which goods are neither better than others nor are of equal value. The incommensurability of value can then be seen to lead to an incommensurability of reasons for action. Examining rationalist and classical conceptions of human agency, Raz uses the presence of incommensurability to understand how this affects (...) the relation between reasons and the will, and its effects on our practical reasoning and deliberation. A proper understanding of human agency will take for granted that the goodness of options are incommensurate and that explanations concerning what we want cannot solely be accomplished in terms of reasons. (shrink)
- Permissions and Supererogation.Joseph Raz -1975 -American Philosophical Quarterly 12 (2):161 - 168.
- On respect, authority, and neutrality: A response.Joseph Raz -2010 -Ethics 120 (2):279-301.
- The concept of a legal system: an introduction to the theory of legal system.Joseph Raz (ed.) -1980 - New York: Oxford University Press.What does it mean to assert or deny the existence of a legal system? How can one determine whether a given law belongs to a certain legal system? What kind of structure do these systems have, that is--what necessary relations obtain between their laws? The examination of these problems in this volume leads to a new approach to traditional jurisprudential question, though the conclusions are based on a critical appraisal, particularly those of Bentham, Austin, Kelsen, and Hart.
- (1 other version)Explaining normativity: On rationality and the justification of reason.Joseph Raz -1999 -Ratio 12 (4):354–379.Aspects of the world are normative in as much as they or their existence constitute reasons for persons, i.e. grounds which make certain beliefs, moods, emotions, intentions or actions appropriate or inappropriate. Our capacities to perceive and understand how things are, and what response is appropriate to them, and our ability to respond appropriately, make us into persons, i.e. creatures with the ability to direct their own life in accordance with their appreciation of themselves and their environment, and of the (...) reasons with which, given how they are, the world presents them. An explanation of normativity would explain the various puzzling aspects of this complex phenomenon. In particular it would explain how it is that aspects of the world can constitute reasons for cognitive, emotive, and volitional responses; how it is that we can come to realise that certain cognitive, emotional or volitional responses are appropriate in various circumstances, and inappropriate in others; and how it is that we can respond appropriately. This paper explores an aspect of the last of these questions. (shrink)
- Responsibility and the Negligence Standard.Joseph Raz -2010 -Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 30 (1):1-18.The paper has dual aim: to analyse the structure of negligence, and to use it to offer an explanation of responsibility (for actions, omissions, consequences) in terms of the relations which must exist between the action (omission, etc.) and the agents powers of rational agency if the agent is responsible for the action. The discussion involves reflections on the relations between the law and the morality of negligence, the difference between negligence and strict liability, the role of excuses and the (...) grounds of duties to pay damages. (shrink)
- VII*—Value Incommensurability: Some Preliminaries.Joseph Raz -1986 -Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 86 (1):117-134.Joseph Raz; VII*—Value Incommensurability: Some Preliminaries, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 86, Issue 1, 1 June 1986, Pages 117–134, https://.
- Numbers, with and without contractualism.Joseph Raz -2003 -Ratio 16 (4):346–367.
- (1 other version)Normativity: The Place of Reasoning.Joseph Raz -2015 -Philosophical Issues 25 (1):144-164.It is more or less common ground that an important aspect of the explanation of normativity relates it to the way Reason (our rational powers), reasons (for beliefs, emotions, actions, etc.) and reasoning, with all its varieties and domains, are inter-connected. The relation of reasoning to reasons is the topic of this this paper. It does not start from a tabula rasa. It presupposes that normativity has to do with the ability to respond rationally to reasons, and with responding to (...) reasons with the use of our rational powers. The question is where does reasoning fit in? I will compare two sketchy accounts of reasoning, judging their success in elucidating the concept and its role in the explanation of normativity. First I outline the view that reasoning is an activity of searching for a justified answer or for a justification of the answer to a question. Some critical reflection on that view leads to what I call the simple account, which takes reasoning to consist (broadly speaking) in responsiveness to perceived reasons. I will illustrate ways in which the simple account is at odds with the concept of reasoning. Its merits depend on the thought that intentions, attempts or actions can be conclusions of reasoning. Those who affirm that possibility often regard reasoning that has such conclusions as practical reasoning. Hence much of the paper will be about practical reasoning. That would lead to a tentative endorsement of reasoning as a search for a justified answer, suggesting a different view of the place of reasoning in explaining normativity. (shrink)
- Law, Morality, and Society: Essays in Honour of H. L. A. Hart.P. M. S. Hacker &Joseph Raz (eds.) -1977 - Oxford: Oxford University Press.Law, Morality and Society Essays in Honour of H.L.A Hart.
- The practice of value - reply.Joseph Raz -2003 - In Jay Wallace,The Practice of Value. Oxford University Press.The privilege of having three sets of extensive and hard-hitting comments on one's work is as welcome as it is rare, and especially so on this occasion as the lectures were, for me, but thefirst (well, not entirely first) stab at a subject I hope to explore at greater length. The reflectionsthat follow will respond to some of the criticisms, but will not be a point by point reply. I will use the occasion to clarify some obscurities in the lectures, (...) and to contrast my view with some of my critics' own positions. I will proceed thematically, starting with some observations about method and about ontology, proceeding to explore several questions about the relations between social dependence and relativism, between genre, value, and normativity, and concluding with a fewwords on pluralism and liberal values. (shrink)
- Liberating Duties.Joseph Raz -1989 -Law and Philosophy 8 (1):3 - 21.
- Can there be a theory of law?Joseph Raz -2004 - In Martin P. Golding & William A. Edmundson,The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 324–342.The paper deals with the possibility of a theory of the nature of law as such, a theory which will be necessarily true of all law. It explores the relations between explanations of concepts and of the things they are concepts of, the possibility that the law has essential properties, and the possibility that the law changes its nature over time, and that what is law at a given place and time depends on the culture and concepts of that place (...) and time. It also considers the possibility of understanding the institutions, such as the law, of cultures whose concepts are alien to us. The position advocated offers a reconciliation of ways in which a theory of the nature of law is parochial with its claim to be universal. (shrink)
- Incorporation by law.Joseph Raz -2004 -Legal Theory 10 (1):1-17.My purpose here is to examine the question of how the law can be incorporated within morality and how the existence of the law can impinge on our moral rights and duties, a question (or questions) which is a central aspect of the broad question of the relation between law and morality. My conclusions cast doubts on the incorporation thesis, that is, the view that moral principles can become part of the law of the land by incorporation.
- The role of well‐being.Joseph Raz -2004 -Philosophical Perspectives 18 (1):269–294."Well-being" signifies the good life, the life which is good for the person whose life it is. I have argued that well-being consists in a wholehearted and successful pursuit of valuable relationships and goals. This view, a little modified, is defended , but the main aim of the article is to consider the role of well-being in practical thought. In particular I will examine a suggestion which says that when we care about people, and when we ought to care about (...) people, what we do, or ought to, care about is their well-being. The suggestion is indifferent to who cares and who is cared for. People may care, perhaps ought to care, about themselves, and they may care, perhaps ought to care, about people with whom they have, or ought to have special bonds, and finally they may care, perhaps ought to care, about other people generally. In all cases what they care, or ought to care, about is the wellbeing of the relevant people, themselves or others. I will argue that the suggestion is misleading, and the role of well-being in both personal and ethical life is much more modest. (shrink)
- Two Views of the Nature of the Theory of Law: A Partial Comparison: Joseph Raz.Joseph Raz -1998 -Legal Theory 4 (3):249-282.In Law's Empire Prof. Ronald Dworkin has advanced a new theory of law, complex and intriguing. He calls it law as integrity. But in some ways the more radical and surprising claim he makes is that not only were previous legal philosophers mistaken about the nature of law, they were also mistaken about the nature of the philosophy of law or jurisprudence. Perhaps it is possible to summarize his main contentions on the nature of jurisprudence in three theses: First, jurisprudence (...) is interpretive: “General theories of law… aim to interpret the main point and structure of legal practice”. Second, legal philosophy cannot be a semantic account of the word “law.” Legal philosophers “cannot produce useful semantic theories of law”. Third, legal philosophy or jurisprudence “is the general part of adjudication, silent prologue to any decision at law”. (shrink)
- Incommensurability and agency.Joseph Raz -1997 - In Ruth Chang,Incommensurability, Incomparability, and Practical Reason. Cambridge, MA, USA: Harvard. pp. 110–28.No categories
- Multiculturalism.Joseph Raz -1998 -Ratio Juris 11 (3):193-205.
- Perfectionism and Neutrality: Essays in Liberal Theory.Bruce Ackerman,Richard J. Arneson,Ronald W. Dworkin,Gerald F. Gaus,Kent Greenawalt,Vinit Haksar,Thomas Hurka,George Klosko,Charles Larmore,Stephen Macedo,Thomas Nagel,John Rawls,Joseph Raz &George Sher -2003 - Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.Editors provide a substantive introduction to the history and theories of perfectionism and neutrality, expertly contextualizing the essays and making the collection accessible.
- The Roots of Normativity.Joseph Raz &Ulrike Heuer (eds.) -2022 - Oxford: Oxford University Press.Joseph Raz addresses one of the most basic philosophical questions: how to explain normativity in its many guises. His value-based account is brought to bear on many aspects of the lives of rational beings and their agency, such as their ability to maintain relationships, and to live their lives as social beings with a sense of their identity.
- Personal practical conflicts.Joseph Raz -2004 - In Peter Baumann & Monika Betzler,Practical Conflicts: New Philosophical Essays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 172--196.
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David Bourget (Western Ontario)
David Chalmers (ANU, NYU)
Area Editors:
David Bourget
Gwen Bradford
Berit Brogaard
Margaret Cameron
David Chalmers
James Chase
Rafael De Clercq
Ezio Di Nucci
Esa Diaz-Leon
Barry Hallen
Hans Halvorson
Jonathan Ichikawa
Monte Johnson
Michelle Kosch
Øystein Linnebo
Paul Livingston
Brandon Look
Manolo Martínez
Matthew McGrath
Michiru Nagatsu
Susana Nuccetelli
Giuseppe Primiero
Jack Alan Reynolds
Darrell P. Rowbottom
Aleksandra Samonek
Constantine Sandis
Howard Sankey
Jonathan Schaffer
Thomas Senor
Daniel Star
Jussi Suikkanen
Aness Kim Webster
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