Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-cx56b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-06T15:19:49.707Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Shared intentions, public reason, and political autonomy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Blain Neufeld
Blain Neufeld*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA
*
Blain Neufeld blain.neufeld@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

John Rawls claims that public reasoning is the reasoning of ‘equal citizens who as a corporate body impose rules on one another backed by sanctions of state power’. Drawing upon an amended version of Michael Bratman’s theory of shared intentions, I flesh out this claim by developing the ‘civic people’ account of public reason. Citizens realize ‘full’ political autonomy as members of a civic people. Full political autonomy, though, cannot be realised by citizens in societies governed by a ‘constrained proceduralist’ account of democratic self-government, or the ‘convergence’ account of public justification formulated recently by Gerald Gaus and Kevin Vallier.

Keywords

Michael Bratmancivic respectGerald Gauspolitical autonomypolitical liberalismpublic reasonshared intentionsJohn RawlsKevin Vallier
Type
Original Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 49 , Issue 6 , September 2019 , pp. 776 - 804
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Billingham, Paul. 2016. “Does Political Community Require Public Reason? On Lister’s Defence of Political Liberalism.” Politics, Philosophy & Economics 15: 20–41. 10.1177/1470594X15573460CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berlin, Isaiah. 1969a. “Introduction.” In Four Essays on Liberty, ix–lxii. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Berlin, Isaiah. 1969b. “Two Concepts of Liberty.” In Four Essays on Liberty, 118–172. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Boettcher, James. 2007. “Respect, Recognition, and Public Reason.” Social Theory and Practice 33: 223–249. 10.5840/soctheorpract200733226CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bratman, Michael. 1999. Faces of Intention. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511625190CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bratman, Michael. 2004. “Shared Valuing and Frameworks for Practical Reasoning.” In Reason and Value: Themes from the Moral Philosophy of Joseph Raz, edited by Wallace, R. J., Pettit, P., Scheffler, S. and Smith, M., 1–27. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bratman, Michael. 2014. Shared Agency: A Planning Theory of Acting Together. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199897933.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Joshua. 1994. “Political Liberalism.” Michigan Law Review 92: 1503–1546. 10.2307/1289593CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Joshua. 2008. “Procedure and Substance in Deliberative Democracy.” In Philosophy, Politics, Democracy, 154–180. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Darwall, Stephen. 2006. The Second-Person Standpoint. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Davis, Gordon, and Neufeld, Blain. 2007. “Political Liberalism, Civic Education, and Educational Choice.” Social Theory and Practice 33: 47–74. 10.5840/soctheorpract200733135CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, Samuel. 2007. “Public Reason and Political Justification.” In Justice and the Social Contract: Essays on Rawlsian Political Philosophy, 215–257. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gaus, Gerald. 2010. “Coercion, Ownership, and the Redistributive State: Justificatory Liberalism’s Classical Tilt.” Social Philosophy & Policy 27: 233–275. 10.1017/S0265052509990100CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaus, Gerald. 2011. The Order of Public Reason: A Theory of Freedom and Morality in a Diverse and Bounded World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gaus, Gerald. 2015. “Public Reason Liberalism.” In The Cambridge Companion to Liberalism, edited by Wall, S., 115–140. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gaus, Gerald. 2016. The Tyranny of the Ideal: Justice in a Diverse Society. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 10.1515/9781400881048Google Scholar
Gaus, Gerald, and Vallier, Kevin. 2009. “The Roles of Religious Conviction in a Publicly Justified Polity.” Philosophy & Social Criticism 35: 51–76. 10.1177/0191453708098754CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, Margaret. 1999. “Reconsidering the “Actual Contract” Theory of Political Obligation.” Ethics 109: 236–260. 10.1086/233895CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, Margaret. 2000. Sociality and Responsibility: New Essays in Plural Subject Theory. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.Google Scholar
Gilbert, Margaret. 2006. A Theory of Political Obligation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/0199274959.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodgson, Louis-Philippe. 2012. “Why the Basic Structure? ” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 42: 303–334. 10.1080/00455091.2012.10716779CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. 1998. Immanuel Kant: Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Translated by Gregor, M.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511809590CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krasnoff, Larry. 1998. “Consensus, Stability, and Normativity in Rawls’s Political Liberalism.” The Journal of Philosophy 95: 269–292.Google Scholar
Krishnamurthy, Meena. 2012. “Reconceiving Rawls’s Arguments for Equal Political Liberty and Its Fair Value.” Social Theory and Practice 38: 258–278. 10.5840/soctheorpract201238215CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krishnamurthy, Meena. 2013. “Completing Rawls’s Arguments for Equal Political Liberty and Its Fair Value: The Argument from Self-Respect.” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 43: 179–205. 10.1080/00455091.2013.816177CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larmore, Charles. 1987. Patterns of Moral Complexity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511625107CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larmore, Charles. 1999. “The Moral Basis of Political Liberalism.” The Journal of Philosophy 96: 599–625. 10.2307/2564695CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larmore, Charles. 2008. The Autonomy of Morality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511816611CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larmore, Charles. 2015. “Political Liberalism: Its Motivations and Goals.” In Oxford Studies in Political Philosophy: Volume 1, edited by Sobel, David, Vallentyne, Peter and Wall, Stephen, 63–88. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Leland, R. J., and van Wietmarschen, H.. 2017. “Political Liberalism and Political Community.” Journal of Moral Philosophy 14: 142–167. 10.1163/17455243-46810052CrossRefGoogle Scholar
May, Simon C. 2009. “Religious Democracy and the Liberal Principle of Legitimacy.” Philosophy & Public Affairs 37: 136–170. 10.1111/papa.2009.37.issue-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neufeld, Blain. 2005. “Civic Respect, Political Liberalism, and Non-Liberal Societies.” Politics, Philosophy & Economics 4: 275–299. 10.1177/1470594X05056603CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neufeld, Blain. 2010. “Reciprocity and Liberal Legitimacy.” Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 1–7. http://www.jesp.org/articles/download/RLL_copyeditedformatted.pdf.Google Scholar
Neufeld, Blain. 2011. “Review of Paul Wiethman, Why Political Liberalism? ” Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.. https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/why-political-liberalism-on-john-rawls-s-political-turn/.Google Scholar
Neufeld, Blain, and Van Schoelandt, C.. 2014. “Political Liberalism, Ethos Justice, and Gender Equality.” Law and Philosophy 33: 75–104. 10.1007/s10982-013-9174-5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neufeld, Blain. 2017. “Why Public Reasoning Involves Ideal Theorizing.” In Political Utopias: Contemporary Debates, edited by Weber, Michael and Vallier, Kevin, 73–94. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190280598.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neufeld, Blain, and Watson, Lori. 2018. “The Tyranny – Or the Democracy – Of the Ideal? ” Cosmos + Taxis 5: 47–61. https://cosmosandtaxis.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/neufeld_watson_ct_vol5_iss2.pdf.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha. 2011. “Perfectionist Liberalism and Political Liberalism.” Philosophy & Public Affairs 39: 3–45. 10.1111/papa.2011.39.issue-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawls, John. 1999a. A Theory of Justice: Revised Edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 1999b. The Law of Peoples. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 2001. Justice as Fairness: A Restatement. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 2005. Political Liberalism: Expanded Edition. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. (1762) 1968. The Social Contract. Translated by Cranston, Maurice. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Scott J. 2014. “Massively Shared Agency.” In Rational and Social Agency, edited by Vargas, M. and Yaffe, G., 257–293. New York: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199794515.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmons, A. John. 2010. “Ideal and Nonideal Theory.” Philosophy & Public Affairs 38: 5–36. 10.1111/papa.2010.38.issue-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stemplowska, Zofia, and Swift, Adam. 2014. “Rawls on Ideal and Nonideal Theory.” In A Companion to Rawls, edited by Mandle, Jon and Reidy, David A., 112–127. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. 10.1002/9781118328460CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stilz, Anne. 2009. Liberal Loyalty: Freedom, Obligation, and the State. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 10.1515/9781400830701CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valentini, Laura. 2012. “Ideal Vs. Non-Ideal Theory: A Conceptual Map.” Philosophy Compass 7: 654–664. 10.1111/phco.2012.7.issue-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vallier, Kevin. 2014. Liberal Politics and Public Faith: Beyond Separation. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vallier, Kevin. 2015. “Public Justification versus Public Deliberation: The Case for Divorce.” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 45: 139–158. 10.1080/00455091.2015.1039106CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, Lori, and Hartley, Christie. Forthcoming. Equal Citizenship and Public Reason: A Feminist Political Liberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Weithman, Paul. 2010. Why Political Liberalism? On John Rawls’s Political Turn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Weithman, Paul. 2011. “Convergence and Political Autonomy.” Public Affairs Quarterly 25 (4 ): 327–348.Google Scholar
Weithman, Paul. 2015. “Inclusivism, Stability, and Assurance.” In Rawls and Religion, edited by Bailey, Tom and Gentile, Valentina, 75–96.Google Scholar
Weithman, Paul. 2017. “Autonomy and Disagreement about Justice in Political Liberalism.” Ethics 128: 95–122. 10.1086/692943CrossRefGoogle Scholar