A Pragmatist Critique of Liberal Epistemology

Towards a Practice-Based Account of Public Reason

Dados Bibliográficos

ID12643164
AutoresRoberto Freg (CEMS-École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales Paris, autor correspondente)
Ano2012
Volume13
Fascículo3
Páginas293-316
Data de publicação2012-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoCritical Horizons (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1440-9917 • E-ISSN: 1568-5160
EditoraTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1558/crit.v13i3.293
OpenAlexW1599665286
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas10

This paper wrestles with the issue of the place of comprehensive beliefs within the public space. It tries to strike a middle path between the liberal ban on comprehensive beliefs and the anti-liberal claim that comprehensive beliefs should be given full pride of place in public deliberations. The article relies on arguments that are inspired by the pragmatist tradition. It starts locating the main cause of failures at articulating comprehensive beliefs and public reason in a central feature of liberal epistemology, namely the way it conceives public reason via a preliminary distinction between public and non-public beliefs. After criticizing this distinction, the article introduces a distinction between the normative practice of justification and the normative practice of adjudication as a more perspicuous way to establish the place that comprehensive beliefs should play within political forums. It then concludes showing that this approach provides a satisfying answer to the issue of the public role of comprehensive beliefs in a liberal democratic regime that is respectful of citizens’ thick identities while at the same time complying with the requirements of respect set by the liberal tradition

Adjudication · Democracy · Epistemology · Liberal democracy · Liberalism · Normative · Political science · Politics · Pragmatism · Pride · Public reason · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Law · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Religious Education and Schools