Abstract

It could be said that the book considers consensus in two basic ways: cognitively and socially. The latter would include ethics, value theory, political philosophy, and communication. The former considers the role of consensus in seeking and understanding the truth and would thus include epistemology and science. In all cases, consensus is a form of agreement. In the epistemological realm it emerges as some form of shared understanding, while in the social we see it as like-mindedness regarding procedures or principles. Of course, there can be no radical separation between the social and the cognitive regarding consensus, because consensus is an inherently social concept. This is reflected in the actual organization of the book. The first chapter is entitled "Consensus, Rationality and Epistemic Morality," suggesting how the social and cognitive are necessarily linked. That chapter is followed by five chapters dealing primarily with cognitive questions, while the last few chapters concern social issues. The two dimensions are neatly connected by a middle chapter on axiology.