Table of Contents

1. What Is Good? 2. Is There A Highest Good? 3. Public Goods or Common Goods? 4. Shared Meaning 5. The Rationality of the Good 6. The Common Goods of International Relations 7. Game Theory 8. Global Justice and the Global Good 9. Universal Human Rights 10. A Common Humanity 11. The Law of Peoples 12. Case Study: Europe’s Common Good 13. Conclusion Bibliography Index

Promotional Information

Explains what is meant by global common goods and how they function in shaping international and global institutions and practices such as those of universal human rights.

About the Author

Patrick Riordan teaches political philosophy at Heythrop College, University of London, UK. He is a member of the Heythrop Institute: Religion & Society. His previous publications include A Grammar of the Common Good: Speaking of Globalization (Continuum, 2008).

Reviews

Riordan’s Global Ethics and Global Common Goods is exceptional. Richly theoretical debates about distinctions between liberal notions and common good notions run alongside more practically focused debate about how to find agreement in the quest for international cooperation. This much-needed book draws upon an ancient tradition to generate an innovative trajectory in global ethics today.
*Esther D. Reed, University of Exeter, UK*

The expression ‘the common good’ is often uttered but rarely analysed; indeed it is often little more than a political cliché. In this timely study Patrick Riordan engages in analysis drawing upon classical sources and contemporary arguments and provides a clear and very useful treatment of the concept, revealing its richness and applicability in relation to global moral and social philosophy.
*John Haldane, FRSE, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs, University of St Andrews, UK*

The importance of the book's topic cannot be overestimated and the author is clearly familiar with the literature ... [It] provides a good introduction, not only to the topic itself but also to several relevant authors.
*Ethical Perspectives*

Natural law ethics begins from a variety of basic goods. It asks what are the goods that constitute that variety, and how individuals can adequately respond to these goods. What is the corresponding political philosophy? What might a natural law global ethics look like? What has the natural law approach to say about the environment, the economy, international law, human rights? Patrick Riordan’s philosophical exploration of these questions is careful, learned, ambitious, and ground-breaking. And it could not be more timely.
*Timothy Chappell, Professor of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, The Open University, UK*