Public Reason
Subtitle: Mediated Authority in the Liberal State
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: November 1999
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 256
ISBN-13: 9780801436772
Subjects: Liberalism & centre democratic ideologies; Political control & freedoms; Political science & theory; Social & political philosophy; Politics / Current Events; Political Philosophy; Philosophy; Reason; History & Theory - General; Political; Political science
Description: "In this meditation on the different ways in which contemporary society construes the notion of political reason, Fred M. Frohock offers an alternative to the merit forms of reasoning prominent in liberal democracies. He argues that divisive issues such as abortion and physician-assisted suicide resist rational closure: Reasonable individuals, using rational criteria, often reach different and contradictory conclusions.

What resources do we have, Frohock asks, to develop a version of public reason which can succeed even in the deep pluralism anticipated in democratic practices?"--BOOK JACKET.

"Frohock makes a provocative argument: The effects of divisive beliefs can be mitigated with a version of public reason defined as mediated speech acts. These acts are dialogues on the model of a guided conversation in which collective terms dominate simple merit adjudication. This type of public reasoning requires a survey of considerations beyond the merits of the case at hand and opens public reason to the more general needs of the political society."--BOOK JACKET.