Rawls, Liberalism, and Democracy

Ethics 128 (1):173-198 (2017)
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Abstract

This article offers a critique of John Rawls’s great work, Political Liberalism, from a non-Rawlsian liberal standpoint. It argues that Rawlsian political liberalism is influenced as much by a comprehensive view I call “radical-democracy” as by comprehensive liberal views. This can be seen in Rawls’s account of some of political liberalism’s fundamental ideas—notably the idea of society as a fair system of cooperation, the “liberal” principle of legitimacy, and the idea of public reason. I further argue that Rawls’s impressive attempt to unify liberal and democratic traditions philosophically obscures the prudent liberal attitude to democracy, which remains sound.

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John Skorupski
University of St. Andrews

Citations of this work

Meaningful work, nonperfectionism, and reciprocity.Caleb Althorpe - forthcoming - Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy.
Introduction.Andrew I. Cohen - 2017 - Ethics 128 (1):69-74.
Liberal Perfectionism and Epistocracy.Cyril Hédoin - 2023 - Public Affairs Quarterly 37 (4):307-330.

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References found in this work

Against Democracy: New Preface.Jason Brennan - 2016 - Princeton: Princeton University Press.
The social contract.Jean-Jacques Rousseau - 1905 - Harmondsworth,: Penguin Books. Edited by Charles Frankel.
Religion in the public sphere.Jürgen Habermas - 2006 - European Journal of Philosophy 14 (1):1–25.
Religion in the Public Sphere.Jürgen Habermas - 2006 - European Journal of Philosophy 14 (1):1-25.

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