Beyond Realism and Moralism: A Defense of Political Minimalism Rodríguez Alcázar, Francisco Javier Moral philosophy Political minimalism Political moralism Political philosophy Political substantialism Political realism "This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Rodríguez-Alcázar, J. Beyond Realism and Moralism: A Defense of Political Minimalism. Metaphilosophy, 48(5): 727-744 (2017), which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/meta.12259 . This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving." What is the relationship between morals and politics? What is the relationship between moral philosophy and political philosophy? Defenders of political moralism postulate moral aims or constraints for politics, and hence they see political philosophy as a chapter of moral philosophy. Contrastingly, advocates of political realism describe politics as an independent endeavor aiming at providing order and security, and conceive of political philosophy as an autonomous discipline. This article claims that political moralism and political realism share the mistake of assuming that politics has substantial, permanent goals or constraints. After criticizing political substantialism, the article explains the main ingredients of its alternative, political minimalism: (1) the idea that politics, understood as collective instrumental rationality, aims at providing adequate means for the accomplishment of people s goals, whatever these are; and (2) the conception of the relationship between morality and politics as one of “reciprocal containment.” Finally, it addresses some foreseeable criticisms of political minimalism. 2017-12-13T13:33:04Z 2017-12-13T13:33:04Z 2017-10 info:eu-repo/semantics/preprint Rodríguez Alcázar, F.J. Beyond Realism and Moralism: A Defense of Political Minimalism. Metaphilosophy, 48(5): 727-744 (2017). [http://hdl.handle.net/10481/48517] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/48517 0026-1068 10.1111/meta.12259 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License Wiley