On The Political Philosophy Of John Rawls In The " Overlapping Consensus " Concept

John·Rawls(1921-2002), is one of the most representative figures in the politicalphilosophy field for the contemporary west. His unique political philosophy showsthat it starts from political and cultural traditions of the democratic society, limits thejustice concept to the area of political values and interprets the plural culture as areasonable pluralism. Under this background, Rawls considers that citizen, as theperson of freedom and equality, can achieve the most reasonable conforms of the"Overlapping Consensus "on the political justice concept. As one of importantphilosophy concepts, the idea of the "Overlapping Consensus "is the basis ofRawls 'political philosophy. As that, this article elaborates this consensus idea and itssignificance in order that the people can understand it more comprehensively andaccurately.The main contents for this article show four parts:The first part mainly introduces why Rawls puts forward the concept of the"Overlapping Consensus ".The analysis and demonstration of this article carry onfrom two aspects: the background of social history for that concept and the theorychange of justice concept. In the late period of 20th, the western society ordered bythe liberalism fall into a fissile civilization and moral crisis, Rawls thinks that themain task of contemporary western philosophy is handling the tensity between theplural values and social conformity. However, his first construction of "A Theory ofJustice" could not figure out the consensus crisis from the roots in the diverse society.Under this background, Rawls begins reflections and gets a ultimately inherentchange, namely, from the ethical construction to that of the political liberalism, oneobvious change was that Rawls transforms "Full Consensus" by the early applicationof the principles of justice to "Overlapping Consensus" facing the social reality. Thereasons for Rawls taking "Overlapping Consensus" as a requisite concept are showingthese aspects: political and culture resources in democratic society, fact of reasonablepluralism and flexible beliefs among citizens, which are the conditions for itsforming .In the second part, we detail the basic concept and its elements of the"Overlapping Consensus ". First, the article discusses what is the concept of"Overlapping Consensus " on the basis of studying the patterns of traditionalconsensus. The so-called concept of "Overlapping Consensus "means consensus ingood faith with the concept of political justice as core between every rational butcontradictory comprehensive theory ,such as doctrines of religion, philosophy andmorality .Then ,on the basis of the concept definition about "Overlapping Consensus ",the article analyzes the basic components from three aspects, namely, the"Overlapping Consensus "using "reasonable" as standard, the free-standing politicaljustice as core and method of avoidance as means to get consensus. Just through theseelements, Rawls considers how to maintain unity and social stability in a plural anddemocracy society that members having heterogeneous values.The third part is to grasp and understand completely the concept of "OverlappingConsensus " from the perspective of overall political liberalism philosophy. Thearticle first discusses the process of building a famous political philosophy and systemof corresponding concepts from two fundamental issues in the "PoliticalLiberalism" .Then, the article extracts "Overlapping Consensus " from the system ofconcepts as a whole and separately studies linkages between this concept and othervarious concepts of political liberalism philosophy. so, we can get a comprehensivethinking to the consensus in order to grasp its status and role in the entire system froma macro perspective.In the fourth part ,we try to estimate this concept on the basis of systematicdiscussions ahead on Rawls' "Overlapping Consensus " .The article first affirms itslegitimacy from these contributions, such as the rescue of modern disrupting culture,change of methodology latitude of public philosophy, inauguration of means to provethe feasibility of justice and re-interpreting the value of freedom. And that we indicateits vitally inspirational significance to deepen our understanding of solving thesocially pluralistic norms in the opening process. Then the article points out there arealso some queries and limitations on the "overlapping consensus" as a result ofsocial and historical restrictions。This concept is confronted with theory challengesfrom other scholars such as Habermas, HanPuxieer and so on. Its limitations show asfollows: on one hand, the concept of "overlapping consensus" is enslaved to Rawls'cultural background and remains liberal ideology. On the other hand, the"Overlapping Consensus " can not really avoid all metaphysical and special valuetheory while reaching the "public reason" in the democratic society. The "OverlappingConsensus " will mean the demise if it blindly return political philosophy to reality.At last, through the above discussions, we can conclude that Rawls' attempt toreconstruct liberal justice by "Overlapping Consensus " is worth of recognition. Thevalue of this concept is not to solve the problems, but to really take and analyze theproblems.