Paul Weithman
Biographic Data
| ID | 1148331 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Paul Weithman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Paul |
| FAMILY NAME | Weithman |
| SIGNATURE | WEITHMAN P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Notre Dame |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5677-3545 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 35 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 30 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1949 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Avoiding risks behind the veil of ignorance
Lara Buchak defends a Weight-Ranked Utilitarianism (WRU) that she says avoids the critique of Rawls’s that is sometimes thought fatal: utilitarianism unjustifiably blurs the distinction between persons. Buchak’s defence depends upon (i) a version of Harsanyi’s assumption that parties to a social contract should reason as if they have an equal chance of being anyone and (ii) a hypothesis she explores in a recent article. I argue that her assumptio…
Rescuing justice and stability
Though John Rawls's treatment of stability has received less attention than other parts of his work, it promises help in understanding how liberal institutions can reproduce themselves under non-ideal conditions like ours. But stability in Rawls's sense seems to depend ineliminably on society's justice, and Gerald Cohen powerfully criticized the connection Rawls drew between the two. Cohen contends that stability is ‘alien’ to justice rather than…
Public Deliberation, Public Reason, and Concern for Truth
In “The Idea of Public Reason Revisited,” John Rawls implied that a well-ordered society would be a deliberative democracy and said that public reason is essential to it. After his turn to political liberalism, he was chary about claims of truth. In Section 1, I lay out essential features of Rawlsian deliberative democracy. In Section 2, I introduce some prominent commentary on Rawls’s treatment of truth and public reasoning. On these readings—co…
Stability and equilibrium in political liberalism
Two questions for Professor Vallier
Kevin Vallier claims to have attained a ‘great goal’ of the social contract tradition: ‘to show that there are regimes supported by the reason of the public and that have authority for citizens in those regimes’. I contend that his argument depends upon changing the meanings of ‘reason of the public’ and ‘authority’, and conclude that he has not attained the goal he claims
Fixed points and well-ordered societies
Recent years have seen a certain impatience with John Rawls's approach to political philosophy and calls for the discipline to move beyond it. One source of dissatisfaction is Rawls's idea of a well-ordered society. In a recent article, Alex Schaefer has tried to give further impetus to this movement away from Rawlsian theorizing by pursuing a question about well-ordered societies that he thinks other critics have not thought to ask. He poses tha…
Liberalism & Deferential Treatment
Legally preferential treatment of a religious organization is the legal conferral of a status that is more favorable than that accorded to other religious organizations. This essay introduces and analyzes the contrasting concept of deferential treatment. “Deferential treatment” refers to forms of favorable treatment that are cultural rather than legal. While the problems posed by legally preferential treatment of religion are well known, the prob…
Justice & its motives: On Peter Vanderschraaf’s Strategic Justice
Peter Vanderschraaf’s Strategic Justice is a powerful elaboration and defense of what he calls ‘justice as mutual advantage’. Vanderschraaf opens Strategic Justice by observing that ‘Plato set a template for all future philosophers by raising two interrelated questions: (1) What precisely is justice? (2) Why should one be just?’. He answers that (1) justice consists of conventions which (2) are followed because each sees that doing so is in her i…
Another Voluntarism: John Rawls on Political Legitimacy
John Rawls’s presentation of his famous principle of legitimacy raises a number of exegetical and philosophical questions which his texts leave unresolved. The key to their solution lies in a claim Rawls makes about the character of political power. Rawls uses language familiar from social contract theory to describe that power, saying that it is the power of the public as a corporate body. This chapter considers but ultimately rejects the sugges…
Religious Ethics and Economic Inequality
This essay serves as an introduction to five papers on economic inequality in this issue of the Journal of Religious Ethics . In addition to introducing the articles individually, the essay also gives a brief overview of recent economic developments that have led religious ethicists to call attention to the issue of inequality
Solidarity and the New Inequality
Economists now have the data to generate a high‐resolution picture of the economic inequalities within the very top fractions of income and wealth and between the top‐most fractions and others that have emerged since the early 1980s. I shall refer to these inequalities collectively as “the new inequality.” I argue that the moral value of solidarity can be used to raise pointed moral questions about the new inequality. In most cases, however, I sh…
Autonomy and Disagreement about Justice in Political Liberalism
Rawls says in Political Liberalism that “the focus of an overlapping consensus is [more likely to be] a class of liberal conceptions” than a single one. In conceding that members of the well-ordered society are unlikely to live up to justice as fairness, Rawls would seem to have conceded that they are also unlikely to live autonomously. This is exactly the conclusion some commentators have drawn. I contend that the likelihood of “reasonable plura…
In Defense of a Political Liberalism
Convergence and political autonomy
Rawls, Political Liberalism and Reasonable Faith
For over twenty years, Paul Weithman has explored the thought of John Rawls to ask how liberalism can secure the principled allegiance of those people whom Rawls called 'citizens of faith'. This volume brings together ten of his major essays (including one new unpublished essay), which reflect on the task and political character of political philosophy, the ways in which liberalism does and does not privatize religion, the role of liberal legitim…
Harry Frankfurt, On Inequality (Princeton, NJ: (Princeton University Press, 2015), pp. xi + 102
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Rawls, Political Liberalism and Reasonable Faith
Legitimacy and the Project of Political Liberalism
Reply to Professor Klosko
On John Rawls's a Brief Inquiry Into the Meaning of Sin and Faith
This essay challenges the view that John Rawls's recently published undergraduate thesis A Brief Inquiry into the Meaning of Sin and Faith provides little help in understanding his mature work. Two crucial strands of Rawls's Theory of Justice are its critique of teleology and its claims about our moral nature and its expression. These strands are brought together in a set of arguments late in Theory which are important but have attracted little s…
Why Political Liberalism: On John Rawls's Political Turn
In this work, Paul Weithman offers a fresh, rigorous and compelling interpretation of John Rawls' reasons for taking his so-called 'political turn'
Politics and the Order of Love: An Augustinian Ethic of Democratic Citizenship
Book Review| January 01 2011 Politics and the Order of Love: An Augustinian Ethic of Democratic Citizenship Eric Gregory, Politics and the Order of Love: An Augustinian Ethic of Democratic Citizenship. University of Chicago Press, 2008. xv +417 pp. Paul Weithman Paul Weithman Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google The Philosophical Review (2011) 120 (1): 130–134. https://doi.org/10.1215/00318108-2010-021 Cite Icon Cite Share I…
God's Velveteen Rabbit
This article lays out a central argument of Wolterstorff's book, which I call the Argument from Under‐Respect . That argument, I contend, is central to Wolterstorff's thought about wrongs and human rights. Close attention to the argument raises questions about whether Wolterstorff's account of rights can explain what a theory of rights must include: why violating rights wrongs the rights‐bearer
Nicholas Wolterstorff's Justice: Rights and Wrongs: An Introduction
This introduction sets the stage for four papers on Nicholas Wolterstorff's Justice: Rights and Wrongs , written by Harold Attridge, Oliver O'Donovan, Richard Bernstein, and myself. In his book, Wolterstorff defends an account of human rights. The first section of this introduction distinguishes Wolterstorff's account of rights from the alternative account of rights against which he contends. The alternative account draws much of its power from a…
John Rawls and the Task of Political Philosophy
In this article, I sketch a reading of Rawls's work that ties together many of the features that distinguish it from the work of other authors commemorated in this issue. On this reading, the two world wars and the Holocaust pressed the question of whether a just liberal democracy is possible. Seeking to defend reasonable faith in that possibility, Rawls developed a theory of justice for an ideally just liberal democracy. He argued that such a so…
Political Republicanism and Perfectionist Republicanism
In recent years, a number of political thinkers in philosophy, political theory and law have defended political theories which are deeply indebted to classical republicanism. Like classical republicans, these thinkers have claimed that a flourishing polity depends upon citizens' exercise of the civic virtues. Unlike classical republicans, some of these thinkers have defended what might be called “political republicanisms”—republicanisms which are…
John Rawls and the Task of Political Philosophy
In this article, I sketch a reading of Rawls's work that ties together many of the features that distinguish it from the work of other authors commemorated in this issue. On this reading, the two world wars and the Holocaust pressed the question of whether a just liberal democracy is possible. Seeking to defend reasonable faith in that possibility, Rawls developed a theory of justice for an ideally just liberal democracy. He argued that such a so…
In Defense of a Political Liberalism
Contractualist Liberalism and Deliberative Democracy
Justice & its motives: On Peter Vanderschraaf’s Strategic Justice
Peter Vanderschraaf’s Strategic Justice is a powerful elaboration and defense of what he calls ‘justice as mutual advantage’. Vanderschraaf opens Strategic Justice by observing that ‘Plato set a template for all future philosophers by raising two interrelated questions: (1) What precisely is justice? (2) Why should one be just?’. He answers that (1) justice consists of conventions which (2) are followed because each sees that doing so is in her i…
Deliberative Character
Fixed points and well-ordered societies
Recent years have seen a certain impatience with John Rawls's approach to political philosophy and calls for the discipline to move beyond it. One source of dissatisfaction is Rawls's idea of a well-ordered society. In a recent article, Alex Schaefer has tried to give further impetus to this movement away from Rawlsian theorizing by pursuing a question about well-ordered societies that he thinks other critics have not thought to ask. He poses tha…
Reply to Professor Klosko
John Rawls: A Remembrance
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Long-chain unsaturated fatty acids as essential bacterial growth factors. Substances able to replace oleic acid for the growth of Corynebacterium ‘Q’ with a note on a possible method for their microbi…
Philip Quinn, John A. O'Brien Professor at the University of Notre Dame from 1986 until his death in 2004, was well known for his work in the philosophy of religion, political philosophy, and core areas of analytic philosophy. Although he had a wide range of philosophical interests, such that it would be virtually impossible to identify any one set as representative, the contributors to this volume provide an excellent introduction to, and advanc…
Waldron on Political Legitimacy and the Social Minimum
Journal Article Waldron on Political Legitimacy and the Social Minimum Get access Paul J. Weithman Paul J. Weithman University of Notre Dame Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 45, Issue 179, April 1995, Pages 218–224, https://doi.org/10.2307/2220421 Published: 01 April 1995
Contractualist Liberalism and Deliberative Democracy
Neutrality and Autonomy, Equality and Confidentiality
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A Short Discourse on the Tyrannical Government over Things Divine and Human, but Especially over the Empire and Those Subject to the Empire, Usurped by Some Who Are Called Highest Pontiffs. William of…
Religion and the Obligations of Citizenship
In Religion and the Obligations of Citizenship Paul J. Weithman asks whether citizens in a liberal democracy may base their votes and their public political arguments on their religious beliefs. Drawing on empirical studies of how religion actually functions in politics, he challenges the standard view that citizens who rely on religious reasons must be prepared to make good their arguments by appealing to reasons that are 'accessible' to others.…
John Rawls: A Remembrance
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Putting Liberalism in Its Place
Political Republicanism and Perfectionist Republicanism
In recent years, a number of political thinkers in philosophy, political theory and law have defended political theories which are deeply indebted to classical republicanism. Like classical republicans, these thinkers have claimed that a flourishing polity depends upon citizens' exercise of the civic virtues. Unlike classical republicans, some of these thinkers have defended what might be called “political republicanisms”—republicanisms which are…
Deliberative Character
God's Velveteen Rabbit
This article lays out a central argument of Wolterstorff's book, which I call the Argument from Under‐Respect . That argument, I contend, is central to Wolterstorff's thought about wrongs and human rights. Close attention to the argument raises questions about whether Wolterstorff's account of rights can explain what a theory of rights must include: why violating rights wrongs the rights‐bearer
Nicholas Wolterstorff's Justice: Rights and Wrongs: An Introduction
This introduction sets the stage for four papers on Nicholas Wolterstorff's Justice: Rights and Wrongs , written by Harold Attridge, Oliver O'Donovan, Richard Bernstein, and myself. In his book, Wolterstorff defends an account of human rights. The first section of this introduction distinguishes Wolterstorff's account of rights from the alternative account of rights against which he contends. The alternative account draws much of its power from a…
John Rawls and the Task of Political Philosophy
In this article, I sketch a reading of Rawls's work that ties together many of the features that distinguish it from the work of other authors commemorated in this issue. On this reading, the two world wars and the Holocaust pressed the question of whether a just liberal democracy is possible. Seeking to defend reasonable faith in that possibility, Rawls developed a theory of justice for an ideally just liberal democracy. He argued that such a so…
Why Political Liberalism: On John Rawls's Political Turn
In this work, Paul Weithman offers a fresh, rigorous and compelling interpretation of John Rawls' reasons for taking his so-called 'political turn'
Politics and the Order of Love: An Augustinian Ethic of Democratic Citizenship
Book Review| January 01 2011 Politics and the Order of Love: An Augustinian Ethic of Democratic Citizenship Eric Gregory, Politics and the Order of Love: An Augustinian Ethic of Democratic Citizenship. University of Chicago Press, 2008. xv +417 pp. Paul Weithman Paul Weithman Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google The Philosophical Review (2011) 120 (1): 130–134. https://doi.org/10.1215/00318108-2010-021 Cite Icon Cite Share I…
On John Rawls's a Brief Inquiry Into the Meaning of Sin and Faith
This essay challenges the view that John Rawls's recently published undergraduate thesis A Brief Inquiry into the Meaning of Sin and Faith provides little help in understanding his mature work. Two crucial strands of Rawls's Theory of Justice are its critique of teleology and its claims about our moral nature and its expression. These strands are brought together in a set of arguments late in Theory which are important but have attracted little s…
Legitimacy and the Project of Political Liberalism
Reply to Professor Klosko
Convergence and political autonomy
Rawls, Political Liberalism and Reasonable Faith
For over twenty years, Paul Weithman has explored the thought of John Rawls to ask how liberalism can secure the principled allegiance of those people whom Rawls called 'citizens of faith'. This volume brings together ten of his major essays (including one new unpublished essay), which reflect on the task and political character of political philosophy, the ways in which liberalism does and does not privatize religion, the role of liberal legitim…
Harry Frankfurt, On Inequality (Princeton, NJ: (Princeton University Press, 2015), pp. xi + 102
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Rawls, Political Liberalism and Reasonable Faith
Autonomy and Disagreement about Justice in Political Liberalism
Rawls says in Political Liberalism that “the focus of an overlapping consensus is [more likely to be] a class of liberal conceptions” than a single one. In conceding that members of the well-ordered society are unlikely to live up to justice as fairness, Rawls would seem to have conceded that they are also unlikely to live autonomously. This is exactly the conclusion some commentators have drawn. I contend that the likelihood of “reasonable plura…
In Defense of a Political Liberalism
Another Voluntarism: John Rawls on Political Legitimacy
John Rawls’s presentation of his famous principle of legitimacy raises a number of exegetical and philosophical questions which his texts leave unresolved. The key to their solution lies in a claim Rawls makes about the character of political power. Rawls uses language familiar from social contract theory to describe that power, saying that it is the power of the public as a corporate body. This chapter considers but ultimately rejects the sugges…
Political science (32 works) · Law (30 works) · Sociology (30 works) · Philosophy (27 works) · Political Philosophy and Ethics (23 works) · Politics (22 works) · Epistemology (21 works) · Law and economics (20 works) · Law (17 works) · Philosophy (16 works)