The Order of Public Reason

A Theory of Freedom and Morality in a Diverse and Bounded World

Bibliographic Data

ID19948474
AuthorsGerald Gaus (University of Arizona, corresponding author), Gerald F Gaus (0000-0002-1668-1651)
Year2010
Publication date2010-12-13
Open AccessYes
TypeBOOK
VenueOrder of Public Reason (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/cbo9780511780844
OpenAlexW4298025944
Open LibraryOL25567803M
ISBN9780511780844
LanguageEN
Citations received69
References cited2

In this innovative and important work, Gerald Gaus advances a revised and more realistic account of public reason liberalism, showing how, in the midst of fundamental disagreement about values and moral beliefs, we can achieve a moral and political order that treats all as free and equal moral persons. The first part of this work analyzes social morality as a system of authoritative moral rules. Drawing on an earlier generation of moral philosophers such as Kurt Baier and Peter Strawson as well as current work in the social sciences, Gaus argues that our social morality is an evolved social fact, which is the necessary foundation of a mutually beneficial social order. The second part considers how this system of social moral authority can be justified to all moral persons. Drawing on the tools of game theory, social choice theory, experimental psychology and evolutionary theory, Gaus shows how a free society can secure a moral equilibrium that is endorsed by all, and how a just state respects, and develops, such an equilibrium

Economics · Epistemology · Foundation (evidence) · Game theory · Instrumentalism · Law and economics · Liberalism · Mathematical economics · Moral disengagement · Moral order · Moral psychology · Morality · Normative ethics · Order (exchange) · Political philosophy · Political science · Politics · Public morality · Public sphere · Social cognitive theory of morality · Social contract · Social order · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science) · Computer Science · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Law · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics · War, Ethics, and Justification · Political ethics

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