Rawls’ Concept Of Overlapping Consensus And Its Implications

From the political and cultural traditions of the modern democratic constitutionalsociety, Rawls believes that contemporary society is a rational and pluralistic societywhich is an indisputable fact. In the social context of political pluralism, culturalpluralism, value pluralism, citizens with the public rationality in modern society canreach on the concept of "political justice" as a kind of "overlapping consensus".The concept of overlapping consensus is one of the three concepts of Rawls’spolitical liberalism, the other two are respectively the public reason and the right ofpriority in the good. Overlapping consensus refers to a wide range of moderndemocratic society, in which the public rational citizens try to achieve the politicalconception of justice overlapping consensus at the same time when they are holdingin their respective rational philosophy, religion and ethics theory and seeking mutualconsensus.This paper systematically discusses the background of Rawls’ overlappingconsensus, the construction and its enlightenment of the contemporary Chinesesociety. In Rawls’s view, rational overlapping consensus reached by the citizens canprovide stability support for the modern democratic society. There is no doubt that theconcept of overlapping consensus has important practical significance for the cultureand the value of the growing diversity in Chinese society.The main body of this paper has three main parts. The first part discusses thesocial background of the concept of overlapping consensus, including politicalpluralism, cultural pluralism and value pluralism; the second part analyzes theconstruction of the overlapping consensus, mainly from the overlapping consensusbasis, possibility and necessity, levels, and the relationship with other concepts; Thelast part analyzes the realistic significance of the concept of overlapping consensus forcontemporary Chinese society.