179 - Reasonable hope

Summary

Rawls introduces the idea of reasonable hope in The Law of Peoples. He links this idea to the notion of a realistic utopia. Briefly stated, a realistic utopia is a conception of a stable and just constitutional regime that conforms to known laws of nature and the real limitations of people, and that incorporates political ideals that inform the institutional arrangements of a just society. The features of a realistic utopia are realistic insofar as they conform to constraints imposed by reality on institutions and people, and it is utopian insofar as its ideals set a standard for what is to count as a just regime. Rawls states that the proper object of hope is the realization of a realistic utopia in both the domestic and the international case. In the domestic case one can reasonably hope for a constitutional regime in which the functioning of the major institutions are largely aligned with principles of justice that are the outcome of an overlapping consensus among reasonable citizens. In the international case the hope is for a society of peoples that abides by international law along the lines Rawls sets out in his eight principles in The Law of Peoples. In both of these cases the hope is for societies that have stable institutions and that therefore generate their own support across generations.