Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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Political Philosophy on Rationalism - Dictionary of Arguments
Gaus I 101 Rationalism/Political philosophy/Gaus: Liberalism as secular humanism remains important today, though liberalism as a self-confident rationalism has been under attack by pluralists, relativists, postmodernists and pragmatists (see Gaus, 2003(1): ch. 1) >Liberalism, >Humanism. However, in an interesting and surprising sense, the pragmatist liberalism of Richard Rorty (1991)(2) and others, although it depicts itself as rejecting Enlightenment rationalism and epistemology, is nevertheless an inheritor of this conception of liberalism as an overall method for arriving at the truth. >Epistemology. To be sure, pragmatism is a reaction to rationalism and representational views of the mind and knowledge; as Rorty stresses, our minds do not mirror nature, and truth is not a correct representation of nature (1979(3): 176–9). >Pragmatism. Nonetheless, truth is still the result of convergence in individual reasoning: what is true is what a certain sort of community of inquirers would converge on (Misak, 2000)(4). So, while rejecting the specific view of reason and truth that characterized much Enlightenment thinking, twentieth-century pragmatist liberalism continues to identify liberal democracy with a certain mode of inquiry, and one which, when properly implemented, leads to a convergence of rational belief. >Enlightenment. Moreover, in the hands of liberals such as Dewey this mode of inquiry allowed society to obtain ‘conscious control’ – for example, in the form of economic planning – over its collective life (1980(5): 87). Thus liberalism is understood as a doctrine about the convergence of rational inquiry that provides for a rationally ordered society. >Liberalism/Hayek. 1. Gaus, Gerald F. (2003) Contemporary Theories of Liberalism: Public Reason as a Post-Enlightenment Project. London: Sage. 2. Rorty, Richard (1991) Objectivity, Relativism and Truth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 3. Rorty, Richard (1979) Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 4. Misak, Cheryl (2000) Truth, Politics, Morality: Pragmatism and Deliberation. London: Routledge. 5. Dewey, John (1980) Liberalism and Social Action. New York: Putnam’s Sons. Gaus, Gerald F. 2004. „The Diversity of Comprehensive Liberalisms.“ In: Gaus, Gerald F. & Kukathas, Chandran 2004. Handbook of Political Theory. SAGE Publications._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Political Philosophy Gaus I Gerald F. Gaus Chandran Kukathas Handbook of Political Theory London 2004 |
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> Counter arguments against Political Philosophy
> Counter arguments in relation to Rationalism
Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-28