Public Reason in Political Philosophy

Public reason has been a constant theme in western political philosophy since the time of Hobbes, even if it has perhaps garnered focused attention only since John Rawls’sPolitical Liberalism (1993). Explicit analyses of public reason can be found in the great social contract theorists — Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and Kant, and more implicit analysis can be found in the writings of Hume, Bentham, Hegel and John Stuart Mill. This volume introduces students, teachers, and scholars to the history of public reason in all of the above thinkers, identifying both common themes and disagreements. Germane excerpts from primary sources are presented, when appropriate, and a never-before published critical essay on each thinker, from a living philosopher is also offered (e.g., Gerald Gaus on Locke). The volume is of great value not only to students, but to scholars seeking to understand the fault lines in the current debates about public reason as well as the relation of current debates to the history of political philosophy.

Piers Norris Turner is Associate Professor of Philosophy and (by courtesy) Political Science at Ohio State University. A co-editor of Karl Popper, After The Open Society: Selected Social and Political Writings (2008), his articles on John Stuart Mill’s moral and political philosophy have appeared in a number of leading journals, including Ethics and the Journal of the History of Philosophy.

Gerald Gaus is the James E. Rogers Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arizona. Among his books are The Order of Public Reason (Cambridge, 2011), On Philosophy, Politics and Economics (Wadsworth, 2008), Justificatory Liberalism (Oxford, 1996), and Value and Justification (Cambridge, 1990). His most recent book is The Tyranny of the Ideal (Princeton, 2016). He was a founding editor of the journal, Politics, Philosophy, and Economics and, with Fred D’Agostino, edited The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy (2013).