Reasonableness in Liberal Political Philosophy

Previously published as a special issue of the Critical Review of Social and Political Philosophy, this collection offers a thought-provoking critique of the role of the concept of reasonableness in liberal political theory, focusing on the proposed relationship between reasonableness and the establishment and preservation of a just and stable liberal polity.

The essays explore the explicit and implicit use of the idea of reasonableness, presenting an analysis that incorporates normative and empirical observations and employs a number of different analytical approaches, including liberalism, feminism, environmentalism, Marxism, and communitarianism. This unique book provides in a single volume a critique that engages not only a vast array of issues but also a diversity of critical perspectives. It not only rectifies a deficiency in the existing scholarship, but also addresses the issues of socio-political justice and stability, offering new, insightful critiques that respond to the increasingly complex circumstances and conflicts that confront life in contemporary pluralistic societies.

Reasonableness in Liberal Political Philosophy will be a valuable resource for those interested in liberal political theory and its potential usefulness in helping to secure a just and stable polity.

Introduction Part 1 1. Reason(ableness) and Conscience in Liberal Political Theory 2. Reasonable Judgments and Collective Choice: Voting in a Deliberative Democracy 3. Reasonableness and Exclusion 4. Reasonableness and the Limits of Political Liberalism 5. The Problem of Reasonabaleness Part 2 6. Liberalism, Reason(ableness) and the Politicization of Truth: Marx’s Critique and the Ironies of Marxism 7. Unreasonable Environmentalism, or Why Greens are Not Liberals 8. The Gender of Public Reason(ableness) 9. What is Reasonableness? And is it Reasonable to Demand That of Citizens in a Liberal Democracy? 10. The Unreasonableness of the Idea of 'Public Reason'