A Study On The Path Of Construction Of Rawls's “Public Reason”

The fact of "reasonable pluralism" has been a necessity because of the establishment of the system of western social democracy and freedom. As a democratic society increasingly presents the trend of diversification, human is showing more and more multiple orientation in such aspects as cognition, i nterests and dreams. In the face of the existing of these diverse differences, it is very urgent to realize the normal development of the society and so is the construction of public reason. How is it possible of public reason? What is the construction pat h of public reason? Therefore, the construction of public reason has been a call of an era, and knowing this construction seems to be very important for us to insist reasonable choice during the complicated social ideology. Public reason is a key concept i n the field of western political philosophy, different scholars have taken a thought and study on the issue of public reason from different angles. Though many philosophers before Rawls have varying views and studies of public reason, it is only Rawls who is a master of public reason.For the present research conditions at home and abroad, international and domestic academics' study on Rawls' s public reason mainly focus on the level of "what", however, there are certain deficiencies on the study of the way to construct public reason. What's more, it has not seen that the construction of public reason to be discussed from the perspective of deliberative democracy. The article tries to dig deeper into Rawls' s deliberative democracy thought, meanwhile, analyzin g the premise, the guarantee and the key of public reason from the perspective of participation, civil tolerance, and public interest. The article resorts to the level of "how to construct" to explore the path of construction.The definition of Rawls' s public reason is mainly manifested by two aspects which are the inner structure of public reason and the deliberative contents of public reason. About inner structure, Rawls' s public reason has its unique applicable scope, and suitable subject. And on its deliberative features, Rawls' s public reason has the characteristics of mutuality, inclusiveness, and publicity. The core issue of the article is " the way to construct public reason", and there are three points on the subject. Firstly, the premise of the construction is that constructing the forum of public reason in a broad range of citizen participation; secondly, the key of the construction is that to reach consensus in the tolerance; and thirdly, the core of the construction is that realizing the maximization of public interest on the basis of dealing with personal interests and establishing the restriction.Rawls' s public reason made a profound influence and practical significance, such as Barber, Gutmann, Thompson and Bohman, all these philosophers are invariably affected by Rawls. However, during the process of the construction of public reason there are still some problems, which is mainly manifested by two aspects: one is the theoretical difficulties, and the second is the dilemma that experienced in the process while combing deliberative democracy. On the theoretical difficulty, it mainly contains the restrictions about the applicable scope and subject of public reason, which lead to negotiate defects. On the practical dilemma, it mainly contains the plights of participation, civil tolerance and the public interest when combing deliberative democracy. Only to face and solve these problems, the construction of public reason will no longer be illusions and become true.