Three Anarchical Fallacies: An Essay on Political Authority

by William A. Edmundson

Book Overview

How is a legitimate state possible? Obedience, coercion and intrusion are three ideas that seem inseparable from all government and seem to render state authority presumptively illegitimate. This book exposes three fallacies inspired by these ideas and in doing so challenges assumptions shared by liberals, libertarians, cultural conservatives, moderates and Marxists. In three clear and tightly argued essays William Edmundson dispels these fallacies and shows that living in a just state remains a worthy ideal. This is an important book for all philosophers, political scientists and legal theorists as well as other readers interested in the views of Rawls, Dworkin and Nozick, many of whose central ideas are subjected to rigorous critique.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521037514
• ISBN13: 9780521037518
• Release Date: July 2007
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

"A Marvelous Book."

"No bare synopsis of the argument can do justice to Edmundson's profundity, the care and depth of his reasoning, and the helpfulness of his engagement with the thought of contemporary scholars and philosophers long deceased. A marvelous book." Patrick Coby, Smith College, in Choice.