Colloquium: Elvira Basevich (University of California, Davis)

Title: Transitional Justice and Ideal Theory:  Implications of Charles Mills’s Ideology Critique

Abstract:  This essay argues that Charles Mills’s critique of ideal theory as ideology offers helpful insights into transitional justice. It identifies the phenomenon of white moral cognitive dysfunction as a formidable obstacle to progress. Even if one does not endorse Mills’s wholesale rejection of ideal theory, one should reconsider the merit of ideal theories that ignore or obscure the phenomenon of white moral cognitive dysfunction. I propose the non-occlusion condition to highlight this phenomenon and its redress as a practical standard for assessing candidate ideal theories. I then introduce four varieties of ideal theory that can survive Mills’s ideology critique in that they are consistent with or support the aims of transitional-justice projects to flag white moral cognitive dysfunction.