•  1257
    Reconciliation Here on Earth
    In James Tully, Michael Asch & John Borrows (eds.), Resurgence and Reconciliation: Indigenous-Settler Relations and Earth Teachings, University of Toronto Press. pp. 83-129. 2018.
    I would like to discuss two interconnected projects of reconciliation. The first is the reconciliation of indigenous and non-indigenous people (natives and newcomers) with each other in all our diversity. The second is the reconciliation of indigenous and non-indigenous people (human beings) with the living earth: that is, reconciliation with more-than-human living beings (plants, animals, ecosystems and the living earth as a whole). I will not discuss formal reconciliation procedures carried on…Read more
  •  451
    In this chapter I explore some of the roles of trust, mistrust, and distrust in deeply plural or diverse societies. Section One sets out the features of deeply diverse societies that provide the contexts of trust and distrust. Section Two proposes that social relationships in diverse societies need to have two qualities to be full of intersubjective trust (trustful) and, thus, worthy of trust (trustworthy) of the members of the relationships: cooperative and contestatory quality, and self-sustai…Read more
  •  385
    John Locke's theory of property is perhaps the most distinctive and the most influential aspect of his political theory. In this book James Tully uses an hermeneutical and analytical approach to offer a revolutionary revision of early modern theories of property, focusing particularly on that of Locke. Setting his analysis within the intellectual context of the seventeenth century, Professor Tully overturns the standard interpretations of Locke's theory, showing that it is not a justification of…Read more
  •  346
    Life Sustains Life 2. The Ways of Re-Engagement With the Living Earth
    In Akeel Bilgrami (ed.), Nature and Value, Columbia University Press. 2019.
    This article argues that we need to learn from the living earth how living systems sustain themselves and use this knowledge to transform our unsustainable and destructive social systems into sustainable and symbiotic systems within systems. I first set out what I take to be four central features of sustainable living systems according to the life and earth sciences. Secondly, I set out what I take to be the main features of our unsustainable social system that cause damage to the ecosphere on t…Read more
  •  337
    Life Sustains Life 1. Value: Social and Ecological
    In Akeel Bilgrami (ed.), Nature and Value, Columbia University Press. 2019.
    I would like to address the question of social and ecological value by bringing two approaches to this question into conversation with one another and show their connections. The two approaches are those of Jonathan Schell and Akeel Bilgrami. The connection between the two approaches is their shared interest in the ‘conditions that sustain life’ on earth. The answer to the question of what are the conditions that sustain life is, in my opinion, ‘life sustains life’: that is, living ecological sy…Read more
  •  271
    Political Philosophy As a Critical Activity
    Political Theory 30 (4): 533-555. 2002.
    The editor of Political Theory asked us to respond to the question, 'What is political theory?' This question is as old as political theory or political philos- ophy. The activity of studying politics, whether it is called science, theory, or philosophy, always brings itself into question. The question does not ask for a single answer, for there are countless ways of studying politics and no univer- sal criteria for adjudicating among them. Rather, the question asks, 'What comparative difference…Read more
  •  183
    Struggles over Recognition and Distribution
    Constellations 7 (4): 469-482. 2000.
    I would like to present a two part response to the following question that Seyla Benhabib posed at a conference at Harvard University in 1999: “Is there a Transition from Distribution to Recognition?” The first part proposes that issues of distribution and recognition should be seen as aspects of political struggles, rather than distinct types of struggle, and thus a form of analysis is required that has the capacity to study political struggles under both aspects. The second part suggests that …Read more
  •  175
    Constitutionalism in an Age of Diversity James Tully. these ambassadors from Haida Gwaii conciliate the goods which appear irreconcilable to us? To discover the answer, and learn our way around on this strange common ground, we need to ...
  •  101
  •  94
    Aboriginal Property and Western Theory: Recovering a Middle Ground
    Social Philosophy and Policy 11 (2): 153-180. 1994.
    During the last forty years, the Aboriginal peoples of the Americas, of the British Commonwealth, and of other countries colonized by Europeans over the last five hundred years have demanded that their forms of property and government be recognized in international law and in the constitutional law of their countries. This broad movement of 250 million Aboriginal people has involved court cases, parliamentary politics, constitutional amendments, the United Nations, the International Court of Jus…Read more
  •  93
    Philosophy in an age of pluralism: the philosophy of Charles Taylor in question (edited book)
    with Charles Taylor and Daniel M. Weinstock
    Cambridge University Press. 1994.
    This is the first comprehensive evaluation of Charles Taylor's work and a major contribution to leading questions in philosophy and the human sciences as they face an increasingly pluralistic age. Charles Taylor is one of the most influential contemporary moral and political philosophers: in an era of specialisation he is one of the few thinkers who has developed a comprehensive philosophy which speaks to the conditions of the modern world in a way that is compelling to specialists in various di…Read more
  •  84
    Recognition and dialogue: the emergence of a new field
    Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 7 (3): 84-106. 2004.
    The field comprising both the theory and practice of struggles over recognition developed over the last 50 years in relative independence of the parallel field of deliberative and agonistic democracy. Over the last decade these two fields, in both theory and practice, have merged because courts, legislatures, ministries and rival armies around the world have often turned the reconciliation of struggles over recognition over to various institutions and practices of negotiation and deliberation. T…Read more
  •  72
    An Approach to Political Philosophy: Locke in Contexts
    Cambridge University Press. 1993.
    An approach to political philosophy: Locke in contexts brings together Professor Tully's most important and innovative statements on Locke in a treatment of the latter's thought that is at once contextual and critical. The essays have been rewritten and expanded for this volume, and each seeks to understand a theme of Locke's political philosophy by interpreting it in light of the complex contexts of early modern European political thought and practice. These historical studies are then used in …Read more
  •  55
    Two ways of realizing justice and democracy: linking Amartya Sen and Elinor Ostrom
    Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 16 (2): 220-232. 2013.
    In The Idea of Justice (2009), Amartya Sen advocates democracy defined as ‘public reasoning’ and ‘government by discussion’. Sen’s discursive approach facilitates the exercise of political freedom and development of one’s public capacities, and enables victims of injustice to give public voice and discussion to specific injustice. It also responds to the contested nature of ‘universal human rights’ and the need to clarify and defend them via public reasoning. However, Sen’s approach leaves intac…Read more
  •  55
    The article suggests that Gandhi’s integrated thought and practice is of great significance today. It focuses on three arguments that Gandhi put together and tested in practice, and presents them in the way that R. B. Gregg explicated them. The first is Gandhi’s critique of the problems of Western industrial civilization: increasing global inequality; increasingly destructive cycles of war and violence; and the relentless domination and exploitation of human beings, communities and ecosystems. T…Read more
  •  51
    Political Freedom
    Journal of Philosophy 87 (10): 517-523. 1990.
  •  48
    Resurgence and Reconciliation: Indigenous-Settler Relations and Earth Teachings (edited book)
    with Michael Asch and John Borrows
    University of Toronto Press. 2018.
    The two major schools of thought in Indigenous−settler relations on the ground, in the courts, in public policy, and in research are resurgence and reconciliation. Resurgence refers to practices of Indigenous self- determination and cultural renewal. Reconciliation refers to practices of reconciliation between Indigenous and settler nations as well as efforts to strengthen the relationship between Indigenous and settler peoples with the living earth and making that relationship the basis for bot…Read more
  •  43
    A New Kind of Europe?: Democratic Integration in the European Union
    Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 10 (1): 71-86. 2007.
    The most urgent problem facing the European Union is to develop the best approach to conflicts over integration in the fields of culture, economics and foreign policy. The essay argues that a particular form of democratic integration is better than the two predominant approaches. This approach draws on the actual practices of the democratic negotiation of integration that citizens engage in on a daily basis but which tend to be overlooked and overridden in the dominant approaches.
  •  42
    Aboriginal property and western theory: Recovering a middle ground*: James Tully
    Social Philosophy and Policy 11 (2): 153-180. 1994.
    During the last forty years, the Aboriginal peoples of the Americas, of the British Commonwealth, and of other countries colonized by Europeans over the last five hundred years have demanded that their forms of property and government be recognized in international law and in the constitutional law of their countries. This broad movement of 250 million Aboriginal people has involved court cases, parliamentary politics, constitutional amendments, the United Nations, the International Court of Jus…Read more
  •  36
    The objective of this article is to deepen our understanding of transformative engagement in comparative and critical dialogues of comparative or transnational political thought. The first five sections discuss the challenges of dialogical comparative political thought. The following three sections discuss how a dialogue approach responds to these challenges and generates comparative and critical mutual understanding and mutual judgment.
  •  35
    Meaning and context: Quentin Skinner and his critics (edited book)
    Polity Press. 1988.
    Quentin Skinner is one of the leading thinkers in the social sciences and humanities today. Since the publication of his first important articles some two decades ago, debate has continued to develop over his distinctive contributions to contemporary political philosophy, the history of political theory, the philosophy of social science, and the discussion of interpretation and hermeneutics across the humanities and social sciences. Nevertheless, his most valuable essays and the best critical ar…Read more
  •  34
    The Agonic Freedom of Citizens
    Economy and Society 28 (2): 161-182. 1999.
    The ways citizen participation and democracy are changing are poorly understood due to the dominance of theories inherited from the eighteenth century. Democratic citizenship can be better understood if critical reflection is re-oriented around the games of concrete freedom here and now as recommended by Hannah Arendt, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Michel Foucault and Quentin Skinner.This orientation brings to light two distinctive types of citizen freedom in the present: diverse forms of citizen partici…Read more
  •  30
  •  28
    The Power of Nonviolence (edited book)
    Cambridge University Press. 2018.
    The Power of Nonviolence, written by Richard Bartlett Gregg in 1934 and revised in 1944 and 1959, is the most important and influential theory of principled or integral nonviolence published in the twentieth century. Drawing on Gandhi's ideas and practice, Gregg explains in detail how the organized power of nonviolence exercised against violent opponents can bring about small and large transformative social change and provide an effective substitute for war. This edition includes a major introdu…Read more
  •  22
    On the global multiplicity of public spheres
    In Christian Emden & David R. Midgley (eds.), Beyond Habermas: Democracy, Knowledge, and the Public Sphere, Berghahn Books. pp. 169. 2012.