Academic

Schwartzman on Reasoning from Conjecture & Public Reason

By Lawrence Solum

Micah Schwartzman (University of Virginia School of Law) has posted The Ethics of Reasoning from Conjecture (Journal of Moral Philosophy, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

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?s idea of "reasoning from conjecture" as one way to argue for a commitment to public reason. Reasoning from conjecture is a form of nonpublic 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 nonpublic justification, this article responds to three objections based on concerns about insincerity, cultural imperialism, and the epistemic authority of those who reason from conjecture.

Highly recommended.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on December 27, 2010 (boomark / email).