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The Rhythm of Justice: On Temporal Indeterminacy in Normative Reasoning

Patrick Cockburn Orcid Logo

Res Publica

Swansea University Author: Patrick Cockburn Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1007/s11158-025-09741-y

Abstract

This article considers how political actors committed to a moral value like equality can cause havoc with our lives if they choose to apply those values in ways that are temporally absurd or arbitrary. The central claim is that without considering the temporal structures of our political commitments...

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Published in: Res Publica
ISSN: 1356-4765 1572-8692
Published: Springer Nature 2025
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa70408
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spelling 2025-10-24T15:29:42.8918883 v2 70408 2025-09-19 The Rhythm of Justice: On Temporal Indeterminacy in Normative Reasoning 4b22b62a5e40365079138682b01a19ed 0000-0001-5246-696X Patrick Cockburn Patrick Cockburn true false 2025-09-19 SOSS This article considers how political actors committed to a moral value like equality can cause havoc with our lives if they choose to apply those values in ways that are temporally absurd or arbitrary. The central claim is that without considering the temporal structures of our political commitments our political theorising will remain indeterminate with respect to social practice. This claim is developed in two steps. First, debates on ‘indeterminacy’ in normative theorising are examined to develop a sceptical argument showing that a lack of temporal reference points can lead to a lack of certainty in the meaning of normative principles. Second, debates on time and social justice are used to illustrate how temporal reference points can link normative principles to the existential time of human lives in meaningful and important ways. To ignore these lessons about the place of temporality in normative reasoning is to ignore the indeterminacy of many of our political commitments and misunderstand the extent of our normative disagreements with others. Journal Article Res Publica 0 Springer Nature 1356-4765 1572-8692 Time; Justice; Realism; Indeterminacy; Ideal theory 15 10 2025 2025-10-15 10.1007/s11158-025-09741-y COLLEGE NANME Social Sciences School COLLEGE CODE SOSS Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) Swansea University 2025-10-24T15:29:42.8918883 2025-09-19T14:48:57.0239733 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Social Sciences - Politics, Philosophy and International Relations Patrick Cockburn 0000-0001-5246-696X 1 70408__35476__efd653e314da4757bce66490b9280e1c.pdf 70408.VOR.pdf 2025-10-24T14:58:45.3827798 Output 801871 application/pdf Version of Record true © The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title The Rhythm of Justice: On Temporal Indeterminacy in Normative Reasoning
spellingShingle The Rhythm of Justice: On Temporal Indeterminacy in Normative Reasoning
Patrick Cockburn
title_short The Rhythm of Justice: On Temporal Indeterminacy in Normative Reasoning
title_full The Rhythm of Justice: On Temporal Indeterminacy in Normative Reasoning
title_fullStr The Rhythm of Justice: On Temporal Indeterminacy in Normative Reasoning
title_full_unstemmed The Rhythm of Justice: On Temporal Indeterminacy in Normative Reasoning
title_sort The Rhythm of Justice: On Temporal Indeterminacy in Normative Reasoning
author_id_str_mv 4b22b62a5e40365079138682b01a19ed
author_id_fullname_str_mv 4b22b62a5e40365079138682b01a19ed_***_Patrick Cockburn
author Patrick Cockburn
author2 Patrick Cockburn
format Journal article
container_title Res Publica
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publishDate 2025
institution Swansea University
issn 1356-4765
1572-8692
doi_str_mv 10.1007/s11158-025-09741-y
publisher Springer Nature
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Social Sciences - Politics, Philosophy and International Relations{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Social Sciences - Politics, Philosophy and International Relations
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description This article considers how political actors committed to a moral value like equality can cause havoc with our lives if they choose to apply those values in ways that are temporally absurd or arbitrary. The central claim is that without considering the temporal structures of our political commitments our political theorising will remain indeterminate with respect to social practice. This claim is developed in two steps. First, debates on ‘indeterminacy’ in normative theorising are examined to develop a sceptical argument showing that a lack of temporal reference points can lead to a lack of certainty in the meaning of normative principles. Second, debates on time and social justice are used to illustrate how temporal reference points can link normative principles to the existential time of human lives in meaningful and important ways. To ignore these lessons about the place of temporality in normative reasoning is to ignore the indeterminacy of many of our political commitments and misunderstand the extent of our normative disagreements with others.
published_date 2025-10-15T05:30:48Z
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score 11.089407

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