Brian Barry [Fellow of the British Academy] was a moral and political philosopher. He was educated at the Queen's College, Oxford, obtaining the degrees of B.A. and D.Phil under the direction of H. L. A. Hart.
Along with David Braybrooke, Richard E. Flathman, Felix Oppenheim, and Abraham Kaplan, he is widely credited with having fused analytic philosophy and political science.[citation needed] Barry also fused political theory and social choice theory and was a persistent critic of public choice theory.
During his early career, Barry held teaching posts at the University of Birmingham, Keele University and the University of Southampton. In 1965 he was appointed a teaching fellow at University College, and then Nuffield College. In 1969 he became a professor at Essex University.
Barry was Lieber Professor Emeritus of Political Philosophy at Columbia University and Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the London School of Economics. He was awarded the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science in 2001. Barry also taught at the University of Chicago, in the departments of philosophy and political science. During this time he edited the journal Ethics, helping raise its publication standards. Under his editorship, it became perhaps the leading journal for moral and political philosophy.
He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1978. Barry was a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association, and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of York in 2006.
Selected publications * Why Social Justice Matters (Polity 2005) * Culture & Equality: An Egalitarian Critique of Multiculturalism (2001) * Justice as Impartiality (1995) * Theories of Justice (Berkeley, 1989) * Democracy, Power, and Justice: Essays in Political Theory (Oxford, 1989) * The Liberal Theory of Justice (1973) * Sociologists, Economists and Democracy (1970) * Political Argument (1965, Reissue 1990)
الكتاب جيد مادة ، وهو يطرح مشكلة غربية صميمة : المواءمة مابين قواعد والتشريعات الديينية في الدولة وقانون الدولة الوضعي ، والذي يحاول صهر الجميع تحت راية قانون واحد بوجود استثناءات لمنع إلغاء الهوية الدينية. ولتلبية حاجة الدولة العملية،وتعد الصفحة 248-249 ملخص تقريبي لفكرة الكتاب المطولة جدا والمشروحة بأكثر مايتطلبه الشرح:
إن الخصائص الثقافية المميزة هي السمة المحددة لجميع الجماعات . وهذا الافتراض يقود إلى استنتاج مفاده : أنه مهما تكن المشكلات التي قد تواجه أي جماعة ، فإن تلك المشكلات تنشأ حتما بصورة أو بأخرى عن خصائصها الثقافية المميزة. ونتيجة هذه "المثاقفة" لهويات الجماعات هي الإهمال المنهجي للأسباب البديلة للمساوئ التي تتعرض لها الجماعات. ********* ومهما يكن من أمر الكتاب والجهد المسكوب فيه، فإن السياسات قادرة على إنفاذ أهواءها المصلحية بصرف النظر عن كل تلك الجهود.