The Limits of Reasonable Disagreement
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24225382 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Anthony Taylor (0000-0003-3032-5060, University of Fribourg) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 135 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 417-452 |
| Publication date | 2026-10-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Philosophical Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0031-8108 • E-ISSN: 1558-1470 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/00318108-12678463 |
| OpenAlex | W7221784595 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 33 |
Political liberals hold that the exercise of political power must be made acceptable to all reasonable citizens. This view is widely thought to be vulnerable to a powerful objection: There is too little that would be acceptable to all reasonable citizens for political liberalism to provide a plausible basis for legitimate state action. This article offers a new response to this challenge, which proceeds in two steps. First, the article develops a distinctive interpretation of the reasonable acceptability test, which is based on the moral ideal that every citizen should be able to find her social position acceptable. Second, the article uses this interpretation to show that there are liberal principles of political morality that no citizen can reasonably reject.
liberal principles · moral ideals · political legitimacy · political liberalism · political morality · reasonable disagreement · Social status · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Political Theory and Democracy
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| Highly cited | No |
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