Research On The Public Reason Concept Of Rawls

John Rawls is one of the most famous political philosophers in the 20th century, his thoughts has been studied as hotspot in many areas, such as politics, philosophy, ethics and other areas. Public Reason, which was put forward as an important idea in late John Rawls, undertakes the task that providing guiding and exploring principles for citizens in public area. In addition, public reason is an important symbol of transformation in Rawls'thought. From moral philosophy to political constructivism, public reason provides a procedural safeguard for fairness as justice.This paper consists of four chapters. In the first chapter, this paper takes the academic context as the beginning and simply analyzes the public reason thoughts of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and Kant's, in order to clarify the development process from historical view and their influence to the public reason of Rawls. In the second chapter, this paper states public reason's connotation. John Rawls points out that public reason's connotation was enriched by many related political concepts. So, in order to deeply understand public reason, this paper expounds the public reason's subject, core value and goals. On this basis, this paper explores the civil ability, publicity, public good and concepts of overlapping consensus. John Rawls'public reason concept is a part of political liberalism, its most important value lies in practice. Therefore, this paper discussed the limitation and"paradox"in the third chapter. At the end, this paper evaluates public reason's rationality and limitation. Considering the perspectives of communitarianism and deliberative democracy, this paper analyses public reason's unreasonable factors according to Sander and Habermas'views.Although various limitations, multicultural conflict, in which public reason was discussed, is a fact. Rawls'discussion undoubtedly offers a platform for people to seek prescription of social stability. So, studying public reason is important for grasping Rawls'thoughts and it can find breakthrough to solve some trouble of realistic society.