Communication, Legitimation and Morality in Modern Politics b... - 9781138554948

Taylor & Francis

Why? This question drives scientific inquiry, not least in the social sciences: why war, revolution, racism and inequality? Asking and debating about \u2018why?\u2019, however, is not the prerogative of scholars; social actors, endowed with thought, reflection and speech, do it too. While we all dance to the beat of genes, emotions, identities and habituated norms, we occasionally stop to ask \u2018why?\u2019 The social sciences have been long preoccupied with the ostensibly objective \u2018why\u2019 while sidelining the social, intersubjective \u2018why?\u2019 This book focuses on the latter, analysing the social actors\u2019 search for justification in their public, political sphere. Justifications, broadly understood, are answers to why-questions given and debated by social actors. The chapters focus on public justifications. While the contributors do not submit that private encounters addressing why-questions do not matter, they choose to put public encounters addressing these qu.