What is this blog about?


What is this blog about?

I am a political philosopher. My 'political philosophy' is a form of 'liberal egalitarianism.' So in this blog I reflect on various issues in political philosophy and politics (especially Canadian and American politics) from a liberal egalitarian perspective.

If you are curious about what I mean by 'liberal egalitarianism,' my views are strongly influenced by the conception of justice advanced by John Rawls. (So I sometimes refer to myself as a 'Rawlsian,' even though I disagree with Rawls on some matters.)

Astonishingly, I am paid to write and teach moral and political philosophy. I somehow manage to do this despite my akratic nature. Here is my faculty profile.

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Public Reason seminar (UWM Philosophy MA program)

Some colleagues at other universities have expressed interest in seeing my syllabus for the seminar on public reason that I am teaching this term, so I thought that I would post it here. Below I have provided the course description and the schedule of readings (I did not bother to post course assignments and the like, as I assume that they would be of little interest to people not taking the course).

Of note are the numerous optional readings. I do not expect students to read most (if any) of them. I include them more for my own sake, to remind myself of relevant material at a glance so that I can advise (with no delay) students who wish to explore certain topics beyond the required readings.

I also should explain why I've included so many of my own articles. The reason is not (simply) arrogance. The seminar meets for 2.5 hours each week, and I usually lecture for the first hour. Since my lectures draw on my own work, I thought it reasonable to give students access to my 'lecture notes' on the relevant topics. Moreover, I'm currently writing a book on public reason, so I thought that I would encourage my students to respond critically to the articles that I'll be drawing upon for that book. Doing so has pedagogic merit, I think, for graduate students (as well as helping me!).

Finally, my apologies for the slightly wonky formatting of the reading schedule. In 'cutting-and-pasting' from my syllabus, some of the spacing got messed up. My attempts to fix it in Blogger made things even worse, so I've left it the way it is.

Okay, preliminary comments out of the way, below is the course description and reading schedule...

[A green Rawls somewhere in Quebec City (I think)]

Course Overview

Citizens in contemporary liberal democratic societies endorse a plurality of religious, moral, and philosophical doctrines. This pluralism cannot be eliminated without the exercise of politically oppressive power—something that liberalism’s principle of toleration rules out. Yet accommodating this pluralism seems to threaten the ideal of consensual democratic decision-making. This is because decisions regarding deeply contested political issues—for instance, what the laws should be concerning abortion, education, physician-assisted suicide, same-sex marriage, and so forth—seem to involve citizens imposing political positions drawn from their respective religious, moral, and philosophical doctrines upon one another. In recent decades, however, theories of ‘public reason’ have been developed to explain how citizens within pluralist societies can make mutually acceptable political decisions. The idea of public reason thus purports to harmonize the principle of liberal toleration with the ideal of democratic self-government.  

This course will explore the two most influential contemporary accounts of public reason. The first is the ‘consensus’ account of John Rawls, according to which public reasons are reasons that reasonable citizens agree should apply to their common political and economic institutions. The second is the ‘convergence’ account of Gerald Gaus, according to which the reasons that citizens should use to decide political questions need not be shared so long as those reasons converge in support of common political decisions. Some of the main criticisms of both accounts of public reason also will be discussed. We will conclude by considering briefly some of the educational implications of ‘public reason liberalism.’

Schedule of Required Readings  

0.         Introductory Meeting (Jan. 26th)

            Required readings:
o       No required readings.

            Optional readings:
o       J. Quong (2013) “Public Reason,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (accessible at: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/public-reason/).
o       K. Vallier and F. D’Agostine (2013) “Public Justification,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (accessible at: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justification-public/).
o       L. Wenar (2017) “John Rawls,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, §§1-4 (accessible at: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rawls/).
o       B. Neufeld (2015) “Public Reason,” in J. Mandle and D. Reidy (eds.) The Cambridge Rawls Lexicon (Cambridge University Press), pp.666-672.

1.         Justice as Fairness and its Stability  (Feb. 2nd)

Required readings:
o       J. Rawls (1999) A Theory of Justice: Revised Edition (Harvard Univ. Press):
§  From Part One: §§1-4, 11, 20, 24, 26 (i.e., pp.3-19, 52-56, 102-105, 118-123, 130-139).
§  From Part Two: §40 (i.e., pp.221-227).
§  From Part Three: chapters VIII and IX (i.e., pp.397-514).
            Optional readings:
o       S. Freeman (2008) “Original Position,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, §§1-6 (accessible at: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/original-position/).
o       J. Rawls (1999) A Theory of Justice, chapter VII (can skip §62).
o       P. Weithman (2010) Why Political Liberalism? On John Rawls’s Political Turn (Oxford University Press), chapter II (pp.42-67).
2.         Political Liberalism and the Idea of Public Reason (Feb. 9th)

Required readings:
o       J. Rawls (2005), Political Liberalism: Expanded Edition (Columbia University Press), “Introduction to the Paperback Edition” (pp.xxxv-lx).
o       J. Rawls (1997) “The Idea of Public Reason Revisited,” The University of Chicago Law Review 64/3: 765-807.
§  Republished in: J. Rawls (2005), Political Liberalism, pp.440-490.

Recommended reading (required for graduate students):
o       J. Rawls (1995) “Reply to Habermas,” The Journal of Philosophy 92/3: 132-180.
§  Republished in: J. Rawls (2005), Political Liberalism, pp.372-434.

            Optional readings:
o       J. Rawls (2001) Justice as Fairness: A Restatement (Harvard University Press), Part I (esp. pp.1-38).
o       J. Rawls (2005) Political Liberalism, Lectures I, II, III, IV, VI.
o       B. Barry (1995), “John Rawls and the Search for Stability,” Ethics 105, pp.874-915.
o       B. Dreben (2003), “On Rawls and Political Liberalism,” in The Cambridge Companion to Rawls (Cambridge University Press), pp. 316-346.
o       G. Gaus (2014) “The Turn to Political Liberalism,” in J. Mandle and D. Reidy (eds.) The Blackwell Companion to Rawls (Wiley-Blackwell), pp.235-50.
o       J. Habermas (1995) “Reconciliation Through the Public Use of Reason: Remarks on John Rawls’s Political Liberalism,” The Journal of Philosophy 92, pp.109-131.
o       L. Krasnoff (1998), “Consensus, Stability and Normativity in Rawls’s Political Liberalism,” The Journal of Philosophy 95, pp.269-292.
o       M. Nussbaum (2015) “Introduction,” in T. Brooks and M. Nussbaum (eds.) Rawls’s Political Liberalism (New York: Columbia University Press), pp.1-56.
o       M. Schwartzman (2004) “The Completeness of Public Reason,” Politics, Philosophy & Economics 3, pp.191-200.
o       P. Weithman, Why Political Liberalism, Introduction (pp.3-16), Ch. I (pp.17-41).
o       L. Wenar (1995) “Political Liberalism: An Internal Critique,” Ethics 106, pp.32-62.

3.         Justifying Public Reason (Feb. 16th)

            Required readings:
o       C. Larmore (1999), “The Moral Basis of Political Liberalism,” The Journal of Philosophy 94, pp. 599-625.
§  [Also in C. Larmore (2008), The Autonomy of Morality (CUP)]
o       P. Weithman (2010), Why Political Liberalism? Ch. XI (pp. 344-369).
o       B. Neufeld (2011), “Review of Paul Weithman, Why Political Liberalism?Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, especially part II (accessible at http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/27634-why-political-liberalism-on-john-rawls-s-political-turn/).
o       K. Ebels-Duggan (2010) “The Beginning of Community: Politics in the Face of Disagreement,” The Philosophical Quarterly 60, pp.50-71.

            Recommended reading:
o       C. Larmore (2015) “Political Liberalism: Its Motivations and Goals,” Oxford Studies in Political Philosophy 1, pp.63-88.

            Optional readings:
o       C. Bird (2014) “Coercion and Public Justification,” Politics, Philosophy & Economics 13, pp.189-214.
o       J. Boettcher (2007), “Respect, Recognition, and Public Reason,” Social Theory and Practice 33, pp.223-249.
o       J. Boettcher (2012), “The Moral Status of Public Reason,” The Journal of Political Philosophy 20, pp.156-177.
o       I. Carter (2011), “Respect and the Basis of Equality,” Ethics 121, pp.538-571.
o       L. Krasnoff (1998), “Consensus, Stability and Normativity in Rawls’s Political Liberalism,” The Journal of Philosophy 95, pp. 269-292.
o       A. Lister (2013) Public Reason and Political Community (London: Bloomsbury), especially ch.5.
o       B. Neufeld (2005), “Civic Respect, Political Liberalism, and Non-Liberal Societies,” Politics, Philosophy & Economics 4, pp.275-299.
o       M. Nussbaum (2011), “Perfectionist Liberalism and Political Liberalism,” Philosophy & Public Affairs 39, pp.3-45.
o       J. Quong (2011) Liberalism Without Perfection (Oxford: Oxford University Press), esp. ch.5.

4.         Public Reason and Feminism (Feb. 23rd)

            Required readings:
o       Re-read:
§  J. Rawls (1997/2005) “The Idea of Public Reason Revisited,” §5 (Rawls’s discussion of the family).
o       Susan M. Okin (2005) “‘Forty Acres and a Mule’ for Women: Rawls and Feminism,” Politics, Philosophy & Economics 4, pp.233-248.
o       Amy Baehr (2008), “Perfectionism, Feminism and Public Reason,” Law and Philosophy 27, pp. 193-222.
o       B. Neufeld and C.V. Schoelandt (2014). “Political Liberalism, Ethos Justice, and Gender Equality,” Law and Philosophy 33, pp.75-104.

Recommended reading:
o       C. Hartley and L. Watson (2009), “Feminism, Religion, and Shared Reasons: A Defense of Exclusive Public Reason,” Law and Philosophy 28, pp. 493-536.

            Optional readings:
o       R. Abbey (2007) “Back Toward a Comprehensive Liberalism? Justice as Fairness, Gender, and Families,” Political Theory 35, pp.5-28.
o       C. Brettschneider (2007) “The Politics of the Personal: A Liberal Approach,” American Political Science Review 101: 19-31.
o       Christie Hartley and Lori Watson, “Is a Feminist Political Liberalism Possible?” Journal of Ethics & Social Philosophy, www.jesp.org, (2010), 5/1.
o       A. Levey (2005) “Liberalism, Adaptive Preferences and Gender Equality,” Hypatia 20, pp.127-143.
o       S. A. Lloyd (1994) “Family Justice and Social Justice,” Pacific Philos. Quarterly 75: 353-71.
o       S. A. Lloyd (2004) “Toward a Liberal Theory of Sexual Equality,” in A. R. Baehr, ed., Varieties of Feminist Liberalism (Rowman & Littlefield), pp. 63-84.
o       B. Neufeld (2009) “Coercion, the Basic Structure, and the Family,” Journal of Social Philosophy 40: 37-54.
o       B. Neufeld (2011) “Susan Okin,” in D. K. Chatterjee, ed., Encyclopedia of Global Justice (Springer), 780-783 (read only the first two sections).
o       Martha Nussbaum (2003) “Rawls and Feminism,” in S. Freeman, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Rawls (Cambridge University Press).
o       S. Okin (1989) Justice, Gender, and the Family (Basic Books), Chs. 5 & 8.
o       S. Okin (1994) “Political Liberalism, Justice and Gender,” Ethics 105, pp.23-43.
o       G. Schouten (2013) “Restricting Justice: Political Intervention in the Home and in the Market,” Philosophy & Public Affairs 41, pp. 357-388.

5.         Public Reason and Religion (March 2nd)

            Required readings:
o       N. Wolterstorff (1997) “Why We Should Reject What Liberalism Tells Us About Speaking and Acting in Public for Religious Reasons,” in P. Weithman (ed.) Religion and Contemporary Liberalism (Univ. of Notre Dame Press), pp.162-181.
o       K. Vallier (2012) “Liberalism, Religion and Integrity,” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 90, pp.149-165.
o       C. Hartley and L. Watson (2017) “The Integrity Objection and the Case for Restraint” (draft chapter in Equal Citizenship and Public Reason: A Feminist Political Liberalism [Oxford University Press]).

            Optional readings:
o       C. Eberle (2002) Religious Conviction in Liberal Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press), esp. pp.294-330.
o       A. March (2015) “Rethinking the Public Use of Religious Reasons,” in T. Baily and V. Gentile (eds.) Rawls and Religion (Columbia University Press), pp.97-132.
o       P. Quinn (1997) “Political Liberalisms and Their Exclusions of the Religious,” in P. Weithman (ed.) Religion and Contemporary Liberalism (Univ. of Notre Dame Press), pp.138-61.
o       J. Quong, “Comments on Kevin Vallier’s Liberal Politics and Public Faith: Beyond Separation” (unpublished APA commentary).
o       K. Vallier (2014) Liberal Politics and Public Faith (Routledge), pp.45-82.
o       P. Weithman (2015) “Inclusivism, Stability, Assurance,” in T. Bailey and V. Gentile (eds.) Rawls and Religion (Columbia University Press), pp.75-96.
o       N. Wolterstorff (2007) “The Paradoxical Role of Coercion in the Theory of Political Liberalism,” Journal of Law, Philosophy and Culture 1, pp.101-25

6.        Public Reason and the Truth (March 9th)

            Required readings:
·       J. Raz (1998) “Disagreement in Politics,” American Journal of Jurisprudence 43, pp.25-52.
·       S. Freeman (2007) “Public Reason and Political Justification,” in Justice and the Social Contract: Essays on Rawlsian Political Philosophy (Oxford University Press), pp.215-256.
·       D. Estlund (1998), “The Insularity of the Reasonable: Why Political Liberalism Must Admit the Truth,” Ethics 108, pp. 252–75.

            Optional readings:
·       J. Cohen (2009), “Truth and Public Reason,” Philosophy & Public Affairs 37, pp. 2-42.
·       J. Quong (2011) Liberalism Without Perfection (Oxford: OUP), ch.8 (“Truth and Scepticism”).
·       J. Raz (1990), “Facing Diversity: The Case of Epistemic Abstinence,” Philosophy & Public Affairs 19, pp.3–46 (esp.3-15).
·       T. Scanlon (2003), “Rawls on Justification,” in The Cambridge Companion to Rawls (CUP), pp. 139-167.

7.         The Political Liberties and their ‘Fair Value’ (March 16th)

            Required readings:
o       John Rawls (2005) “The Basic Liberties and Their Priority,” in Rawls, Political Liberalism, Exp. Ed. (Columbia Univ. Press), pp.289-371—esp. §§6-7 (pp.315-31).
o       Steven Wall (2006) “Rawls and the Status of Political Liberty,” Pacific Phil. Quarterly 87, pp.245-270.
o       Meena Krishnamurthy (2013) “Completing Rawls’s arguments for equal political liberty and its fair value: the argument from self-respect,” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 43, pp.179-205.

            Recommended reading:
o       J. Rawls (1995) “Reply to Habermas,” §§3-4 (pp.396-421 in PL).
o       Meena Krishnamurthy (2012) “Reconceiving Rawls’s Arguments for Equal Political Liberty and its Fair Value: on Our Higher-Order Interests,” Social Theory and Practice 38, pp.258-78.

            Optional readings:
o       C. Brettschneider (2006) “The Value Theory of Democracy,” Politics, Philosophy & Economics 5: 259-278.
o       H. Brighouse (1997) “Political Equality in Justice as Fairness,” Philosophical Studies 86, pp. 155-184.
o       J. Cohen (2003) “For a Democratic Society,” in The Cambridge Companion to Rawls, ed. S. Freeman (Cambridge University Press), pp. 86-138.
o       N. Daniels (1989[1975]) “Equal Liberty and Unequal Worth of Liberty,” Reading Rawls, ed. Norman Daniels (Blackwell), pp. 253-81.
o       A. Gutmann (2003) “Rawls on the Relationship between Liberalism and Democracy,” in The Cambridge Companion to Rawls, ed. S. Freeman (CUP), pp.168-199.
o       H.L.A. Hart (1973) “Rawls on Liberty and its Priority,” The University of Chicago Law Review 40, pp.534-55.
o       B. Neufeld (2017) “Freedom, Money, and Justice as Fairness,” Politics, Philosophy & Economics (forthcoming).
o       R. Taylor (2003) “Rawls’s Defense of the Priority of Liberty: A Kantian Reconstruction,” Philosophy & Public Affairs 31: 246-271.

8.         The Convergence Account of Public Justification (March 30th)

            Required Readings:
o       G. Gaus and K. Vallier (2009) “The Roles of Religious Conviction in a Publicly Justified Polity: The Implications of Convergence, Asymmetry, and Political Institutions,” Philosophy & Social Criticism 35, pp.51-76.
o       G. Gaus (2010) “Coercion, Ownership, and the Redistributive State: Justificatory Liberalism’s Classical Tilt,” Social Philosophy & Policy 27, pp.233-75.

            Optional Reading:
o       G. Gaus (2011), The Order of Public Reason (Cambridge University Press), especially:
§  Ch.1, pp.1-51, Conclusion to Ch.2, p.100, Conclusion to Ch.3, p.181, Sec. 10, pp.163-182, Sec. 13, pp. 232-258, Ch.5, pp.261-287, 293-305, 310-333, Ch.6, pp.334-388, Ch.7, pp.390-392, 400-403, 410, 413-417, 425-447, Ch.8, pp. 448-550.
o       K. Vallier (2014) Liberal Politics and Public Faith (Routledge).

9.         Convergence Public Justification, Coercion, & Classical Liberalism (April 6th)

            Required Readings:
o       G.A. Cohen (2011) “Freedom and Money” in G. A. Cohen, On the Currency of Egalitarian Justice (Princeton University Press), pp.166-99.
o       A. Lister (2012) “The Classical Tilt of Justificatory Liberalism,” European Journal of Political Theory 12, pp.316-326.
o       J. Boettcher (2014) “Against the Asymmetric Convergence Model of Public Justification,” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice (online early version: DOI 10.1007/s10677-014-9519-7).
o       K. Vallier (2016) “In Defense of the Asymmetric Convergence Model of Public Justification,” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 19, pp.255-266.

            Optional Readings:
o       A. Lister (2010) “Public Justification and the Limits of State Action,” Politics, Philosophy & Economics 9, pp.151-175.
o       M. Lister (2011) “Review of The Order of Public Reason,” Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews [http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/24757-the-order-of-public-reason-a-theory-of-freedom-and-morality-in-a-diverse-and-bounded-world/], esp. the final 7 paragraphs (from “In the final section of the book…” onwards).
o       G. Gaus (2010) “On Two Critics of Justificatory Liberalism: A Response to Wall and Lister,” Politics, Philosophy & Economics 9, pp.177-212.

10.       Public Reason, Assurance, and Stability: The Consensus View (April 20th)

            Required Readings:
o       P. Weithman (2015) “Inclusivism, Stability, Assurance,” in T. Bailey and V. Gentile (eds.) Rawls and Religion (Columbia University Press), pp.75-96.
o       G. Hadfield and S. Macedo (2012) “Rational Reasonableness,” Law and Ethics of Human Rights 6, pp.7-46.
o       A. Lister (2017) “Public Reason and Reciprocity,” Journal of Political Philosophy (forthcoming).

            Optional Readings:
o       J. Rawls (2001) Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, Part V (pp.180-202).
o       P. Weithman (2011) Why Political Liberalism?, ‘Introduction’ (pp. 3-16), Ch. IX (270-300), Ch. X (301-343)

11.        Public Reason, Assurance, and Stability: The Convergence View (April 27th)

            Required Readings:
o       G. Gaus (2011) “A Tale of Two Sets: Public Reason in Equilibrium,” Public Affairs Quarterly 25, pp.305-325.
o       J. Thrasher and K. Vallier (2014)  “The Fragility of Consensus: Public Reason, Diversity and Stability,” The European Journal of Philosophy 21.

12.       Realizing Citizens’ Political Autonomy: Convergence vs. Consensus (May 4th)

Required Readings:
o       K. Vallier (2016) “Public Justification vs. Public Deliberation: The Case for Divorce,” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 45, pp.139-158.
o       P. Weithman (2011) “Convergence and Political Autonomy,” Public Affairs Quarterly 25, pp.327-348.
o       B. Neufeld (2017) “Rousseauian Public Reasoning” (draft paper).

            Optional reading:
o       J. Rawls (1995) “Reply to Habermas,” §§3-4 (pp.396-421 in PL).

13.       Public Reason Liberalism and Citizenship Education (May 11th)

            Required Readings:
o       A. Gutmann (1995) “Civic Education and Social Diversity,” Ethics 105, pp.64-88.
o       G. Davis and B. Neufeld (2007) “Political Liberalism, Civic Education, and Educational Choice,” Social Theory and Practice 43, pp.47-74.
o       K. Vallier (2014) Liberal Politics and Public Faith: Beyond Separation (Routledge), ch.7 (“Reconciliation in Policy—Public Education”), pp.225-254.

            Recommended Reading:
o       B. Neufeld (2013) “Political Liberalism and Citizenship Education,” Philosophy Compass 8/9, pp.781-797.

            Optional Readings:
o       E. Callan (1996) “Political Liberalism and Political Education,”’ Review of Politics 58, pp.5-33.
o       E. Callan (1997) Creating Citizens: Political Education and Liberal Democracy (Oxford: OUP).
o       V. M. Costa (2011) Rawls, Citizenship, and Education (New York: Routledge).
o       K. Ebels-Duggan (2013) “Moral Education in the Liberal State,” Journal of Practical Ethics 1, pp.24-63.
o       E. Edenberg (2016) “Civic Education: Political or Comprehensive?” in J. Drerup, et al. (eds.) Justice, Education and the Politics of Childhood (Springer), pp.187-206.
o       C. Fernández and M. Sundström (2011) “Citizenship Education and Liberalism: A State of the Debate Analysis 1990-2010,” Studies in Philosophy and Education 30, pp.363-84.
o       S. Macedo (2000) Diversity and Distrust: Civic Education in a Multicultural Democracy (Harvard University Press).
o       B. Neufeld and G. Davis (2010) “Civic Respect, Civic Education, and the Family,” Educational Philosophy and Theory 42, pp.94-111.

Additional Topics:
(These topics could not be covered in class due to time. However, students may write papers on them if they wish.)

14.       Sincerity and Convergence Public Justification

            Required readings:
o       M. Schwartzman (2011) “The Sincerity of Public Reason,” The Journal of Political Philosophy 19, pp.375-398.
o       J. Quong (2011) Liberalism Without Perfection (Oxford University Press), ch. 9 (“The Scope and Structure of Public Reason”), pp.256-289.
o       K. Vallier (2014) Liberal Politics and Public Faith (Routledge), ch.4 (“Convergence—One Problem, Many Solutions”), pp.103-144.

            Optional reading:
o       E. Markovits (2006) “The Trouble with Being Earnest: Deliberative Democracy and the Sincerity Norm,” Journal of Political Philosophy 14, pp.249-269.

15.       Debating Convergence Public Justification

Required Readings:
o       D. Enoch (2013) “The Disorder of Public Reason,” Ethics 124, pp.141-76.
o       G. Gaus (2015) “On Dissing Public Reason: A Reply to Enoch,” Ethics 125, pp.1078-95.










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