The Ethics of Reasoning from Conjecture*

An important objection to political liberalism is that it provides no means by which to decide conflicts between public and non-public reasons. This article develops John Rawls’ idea of ‘reasoning from conjecture’ as one way to argue for a commitment to public reason. Reasoning from conjecture is a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Schwartzman, Micah (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: 2012
In: Journal of moral philosophy
Year: 2012, Volume: 9, Issue: 4, Pages: 521-544
Further subjects:B public reason
B Political Liberalism
B reasoning from conjecture
B Rawls
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Description
Summary:An important objection to political liberalism is that it provides no means by which to decide conflicts between public and non-public reasons. This article develops John Rawls’ idea of ‘reasoning from conjecture’ as one way to argue for a commitment to public reason. Reasoning from conjecture is a form of non-public justification that allows political liberals to reason from within the comprehensive views of at least some unreasonable citizens. After laying out the basic features of this form of non-public justification, this article responds to three objections based on concerns about insincerity, cultural imperialism, and the epistemic authority of those who reason from conjecture.
ISSN:1745-5243
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of moral philosophy
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/174552412X628931