Theories of Public Reason - MANCEPT Workshops in Political Theory

Theories of public reason seek to develop accounts of (typically liberal) institutions which can accommodate social worlds characterized by deep and persistent diversity. As such, these accounts address a number of questions central to the tradition of political theory: What are the implications of deep diversity for our social world? How can highly diverse populations live together? What is the appropriate scope of toleration, and how do we identify it in practice? What is the appropriate status of religious and other comprehensive world views in liberal democracies? This panel invites submissions of abstracts (up to 500 words) having to do with any topic related to public reason by Saturday, May 25th 2019. Please remove all identifying information from submissions, and send them to Alexander Motchoulski at [email protected]. Presentations will last about 25 minutes, followed by about 30 minutes of Q&A.

As for more specific topics, the panel welcomes contributions relating (but not limited) to the following areas:

– The nature, extent, and significance of reasonable pluralism

– Discussions of extant public reason views, such as those of Rawls, Hartley, Gaus, Lister, Vallier, Watson, among others

– Objections to and critiques of theories of public reason

– The application of public reason views to concrete issues, including contemporary topics such as abortion, education, religious exemptions, majority-minority relations, and war

– Developing models and analytically rigorous formulations of the function and outcome of public reasoning

– The relation between public reason and other political theories related to liberalism, such as democratic or feminist theory

– The appropriate level and kind of idealization in public reason

– The implications of public reason views for religious citizens or views

– The status of perfectionist reasons in public reason

– The relation between public reason and other political values, such as stability, publicity, community, etc.

– Conditions on reasons and citizens, such as those that pertain to the convergence v. consensus debate

– Grounding public reason