Constrained Discourse and Public Life
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6350279 |
|---|---|
| Authors | J Donald Moon (Wesleyan University), Donald Moon (0000-0002-7691-1439, Wesleyan University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1991 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 202-229 |
| Publication date | 1991-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Political Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0090-5917 • E-ISSN: 1552-7476 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0090591791019002004 |
| OpenAlex | W2135327513 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 2 |
T HE OBVIOUS BASIS FOR DECIDING moral and political issues is, as Plato argued long ago, the Truth. Unfortunately, it is not always, if ever, available. Some would deny that the notion of truth, understood in the traditional way as correspondence to reality, is a meaningful or useful concept at all. But even those who continue to adhere to some kind of realism are prepared to recognize that all that we have to work with is judgments, more or less well informed or thoughtful, where the our in question refers broadly to everyone who participates in moral and political life. When we agree, when we are able to respond to criticism and win over doubters, we have good (indeed, the best possible) reason to act on judgments. But agreement obviously does not mean that we have the truth, let alone the Truth, for we might discover later that we were wrong. It should go without saying that the judgments of many are never articulated and sometimes are not even formed in the first place. This silence is often due to the suppression of certain voices by structures of domination and oppression, though deciding what counts as domination is itself problematic. However, the possibility of domination reminds us that the alternativc to agreement is imposition, whether by force or by more subtle forms of manipulation. No doubt, the best justification of imposition is that the norm or structure one imposes on others is true, and so one's exercise of force or manipulation is legitimate. Plato spoke of noble lies. But if we can never get the Truth, if we only have judgments, the failure to reach agreement should at least give us pause: If we have such good grounds for beliefs, why have we been unable to convince others
Aesthetics · Criticism · Epistemology · Norm (philosophy · Oppression · Political science · Politics · Realism · Silence · Sociology · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics
“Right” Discourse in Citizen Participation
The Political Theories of Risk Analysis
Public Justification and the Right to Private Property
Does Deliberative Democracy Work
Can Participatory Democracy Produce Better Selves? Psychological Dimensions of Habermas's Discursive Model of Democracy
The Ambivalence of Political Courage
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.18 |
| Citation span | 1993 - 2012 (20) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |