Reconstructing Public Reason

by Macgilvray, Eric

• ISBN13: 9780674015425
• ISBN10: 0674015428
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780674274938
• Additional ISBN(s): 9780674274938
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-12-30
• Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr

Summary

Can a liberal polity act on pressing matters of public concern in a way that respects the variety of beliefs and commitments that its citizens hold? Recent efforts to answer this question typically begin by seeking an uncontroversial starting point from which legitimate public ends can be said to follow. This reluctance to admit controversial beliefs as legitimate grounds for public action threatens to prevent us from responding effectively to many of the leading social and political challenges that we face. Eric MacGilvray argues that we should shift our attention away from the problem of identifying uncontroversial public ends in the present and toward the problem of evaluating potentially controversial public ends through collective inquiry over time. Rather than ask ourselves which public ends are justified, we must instead decide which public ends we should seek to justify. Reconstructing Public Reason offers a fundamental rethinking of the nature and aims of liberal toleration, and of the political implications of pragmatic philosophy. It also provides fresh interpretations of founding pragmatic thinkers such as John Dewey and William James, and of leading contemporary figures such as John Rawls and Richard Rorty.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Abbreviations	xv
Introduction: The Task before Us	1	(20)
1. The Present Dilemma	1	(5)
2. What Pragmatism Is (and Is Not)	6	(7)
3. Overview	13	(8)
I. TOWARD A PRAGMATIC THEORY OF POLITICAL JUSTIFICATION
1 The Tyranny of Minimalism	21	(25)
1. Does Justification Matter?	21	(4)
2. The Limits of Proceduralism	25	(6)
3. The Limits of Agonism	31	(6)
4. Pragmatic Justification	37	(4)
5. Beyond Minimalism	41	(5)
2 Prospectivism and "The Will to Believe"	46	(26)
1. Scope of the Problem	46	(6)
2. Belief and Will	52	(4)
3. Belief and Evidence	56	(7)
4. Belief and Context	63	(4)
5. Pragmatism and the Will to Believe	67	(5)
3 Narrative and Moral Reasoning	72	(25)
1. Narrative and Moral Experience	72	(4)
2. Narrative and Moral Ontology	76	(5)
3. Narrative and Evidence	81	(4)
4. Narrative and Doubt	85	(5)
5. Narrative and Public Discourse	90	(7)
II PRAGMATISM AND DEMOCRACY
4 Against a Second Pragmatic Acquiescence	97	(24)
1. Acquiescent Pragmatism	97	(5)
2. The Problem of Context	102	(4)
3. Experience as Experiment	106	(6)
4. Science and Democracy	112	(4)
5. Pragmatism and Egalitarianism	116	(5)
5 Against Deweyan Democracy	121	(32)
1. The Deweyan Revival	121	(5)
2. The Hegelian Deposit	126	(5)
3. Individuality and Community	131	(6)
4. The Problem with the Public	137	(7)
5. Dewey's Enduring Contribution	144	(9)
III POLITICAL LIBERALISM
6 Political Liberalism and the Limits of the Political	153	(28)
1. Desiderata	153	(4)
2. Public Justifiability	157	(6)
3. Right and Reasonable	163	(4)
4. Right and Good	167	(5)
5. Public Reason and Reasonable Disagreement	172	(4)
6. Two Difficulties	176	(5)
7 Public Reason and Public Institutions	181	(27)
1. Embodying Public Reason	181	(604)
2. Disagreement, Consensus, and Respect	785
3. The Judicial Model	190	(4)
4. Insincerity Examined	194	(4)
5. The Federal Model	198	(5)
6. Is Injustice Justifiable?	203	(5)
8 The Fact of Reasonable Pluralism	208	(27)
1. The Pluralist Narrative	208	(5)
2. Is Pluralism Necessary?	213	(4)
3. Is Pluralism Permanent?	217	(4)
4. The Fallibilist Narrative	221	(4)
5. Fallibilism without Skepticism	225	(5)
6. Legitimacy without Neutrality	230	(5)
Conclusion: Liberalism after Minimalism	235	(8)
Index	243