Public reason - Wikipedia Public reason From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Public reason refers to a common mode of deliberation that individuals may use for issues of public concern. The concept implicitly excludes certain assumptions or motivations that are considered improper as a basis for public decision making, even as a person may apply them in personal decisions that do not have a significant impact on the public.[citation needed] This is understood within the view that the members of the public are rationalized counterparts of real moral agents, considering possible moral rules and reason when making decisions.[1] Contents 1 Immanuel Kant 2 See also 3 References 4 External links Immanuel Kant[edit] The phrase "public use of one's reason" (Vernunft in allen Stükken öffentlichen Gebrauch) was used by Immanuel Kant in his 1784 editorial piece responding to the question "What Is Enlightenment?," where he distinguished it from private usage of reason, by which he meant reasoning offered from a specific civic office or post.[2] This Kantian conception was further developed by American philosopher John Rawls to refer to the common reason of all citizens in a pluralist society and identified it as a component of political liberalism.[3] Although Rawls cited the Kantian origin of his concept, his understanding is distinguished by the way he explained how public reason embodies the shared fund of beliefs and reason of those who constitute a democratic polity—those who are concerned with the good of the public and matters of basic justice.[3] Public reason giving, in the Rawlsian sense, involves justifying a particular position by way of reasons that people of different moral or political backgrounds could accept. Although in his later writings he added what is known as the proviso, meaning that non-public reasons could be given assuming that public reasons would be provided in due course.[4] In order to accomplish this, however, one must overcome what he refers to as the burdens of judgment, which can produce disagreement among reasonable citizens. These burdens include conflicting evidence, giving differing weights to considerations, conceptual indeterminacy, differing experiences and value conflicts. Private reason, by contrast, is the exercise of an individual's reason to the constrained norms and interests of some sub-set of the public as a whole (such as a business, a political party, the military or the family). Rawls also classified the concept into public reason for "liberal peoples" and public reason for "society of peoples". The former involves public reason of free and equal liberal peoples who debate their mutual relations while the latter involves equal citizens of domestic society debating political issues and justice concerning their government.[5] See also[edit] A Theory of Justice Evidence-based policy Justice as fairness Public choice theory Rationalism Overlapping consensus References[edit] ^ Gaus, Gerald (2010). The Order of Public Reason: A Theory of Freedom and Morality in a Diverse and Bounded World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 267. ISBN 9780521868563. ^ Kant, Immanuel. "Kant's "What Is Enlightenment"". An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?. Archived from the original on 25 November 2011. Retrieved 9 December 2011. ^ a b Deligiorgi, Katerina (2005). Kant and the Culture of Enlightenment. New York: State University of New York Press. p. 8. ISBN 0791464695. ^ Rawls, John (1997). "The Idea of Public Reason Revisited". The University of Chicago Law Review. 64 (3): 765–807. doi:10.2307/1600311. JSTOR 1600311. ^ Rawls, John (2002). The Law of Peoples: With "The Idea of Public Reason Revisited". Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 55. ISBN 067400079X. External links[edit] Legal Theory Lexicon: Public Reason v t e John Rawls Major works A Theory of Justice Political Liberalism The Law of Peoples Justice as Fairness: A Restatement Notable ideas "Justice as Fairness" Original position Reflective equilibrium Overlapping consensus Public reason Primary goods Related topics Habermas–Rawls debate Liberalism Political philosophy Justice This article about political philosophy or theory is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Public_reason&oldid=952985376" Categories: Political philosophy Public sphere Philosophy stubs Political science stubs Hidden categories: All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from January 2019 All stub articles Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version Languages Bahasa Indonesia Nederlands Edit links This page was last edited on 25 April 2020, at 02:53 (UTC). 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