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No proviso: Habermas on Rawls, religion and public reason

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 15:31 authored by Gordon FinlaysonGordon Finlayson
In this article, I argue that a common view of Habermas’s theory of public reason, which takes it to be similar to Rawls’s ‘proviso’, is mistaken. I explain why that mistake arises, and show that those who have made it have thus overlooked the distinctiveness of Habermas’s theory and approach. Consequently, I argue, they tend to wrongly infer that objections directed at Rawls’s ‘proviso’ apply also to Habermas’s ‘institutional translation proviso’. Ironically, Habermas’s attempt to rebut those objections leads him to advance a peculiar, and ultimately indefensible, thesis about the cognitive requirements of democratic citizenship for secular citizens. I argue that the underlying problem that Habermas takes the peculiar thesis to solve is not that the public reason requirements of the secular state are unfair towards religious citizens, or biased towards secular views of the world, but that the nature of religious arguments, and of scientism, as Habermas understands these, prevents citizens who adhere to them from participating in discourse. I end by suggesting a simpler, less controversial solution to that problem.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

European Journal of Political Theory

ISSN

1474-8851

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Page range

1-22

Department affiliated with

  • Philosophy Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Centre for Social and Political Thought Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2018-10-17

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2018-11-02

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2018-10-17

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