A Study On Rawls’ Thought Of Public Reason

The idea of public reason occupies an important position in Rawls’ later thoughts.According to Rawls,public reason provides moral justification for citizens to collectively and publicly exercise political power in a constitutional democracy society.The idea of public reason leads to the duty of civility as a moral obligation:it requires citizens in a constitutional democracy society to think and make decisions based on reasons that other citizens can accept when they exercise power on important political issues.Hobbes started from the inevitable dispute caused by natural reason,and demonstrated the necessity of establishing an arbitrator and accepting his reason as public reason.Rawls’ s idea of public reason also originates from the issue of disagreement,but he imposes more moral constraints on the content of public reason.Rousseau linked public reason with public good and law,while Rawls also regarded public good as the goal of public reason,and conveyed a Rousseauian democracy ideal through public reason.Kant’s so-called public use of reason refers to the free use of reason without establishing external authority.This free use of reason is acceptable to all.Similarly,the publicity of Rawls’ s public reason is also manifested in our reasonable acceptance of its reason by all citizens.The agents of public reason are citizens of democratic society.They are also audiences of public reason.They should think and decide on important political issues in accordance with public reason.The content of public reason is expressed not only as the standard of reciprocity,but also as a set of liberal political conception of justice,and thus reflects the ideal of deliberative democracy.The content of public reason provides many important political values,and further extends other important political values,which enables citizens to rely on these values alone to deliberate on important political issues.Rawls limited the subject of public reason to constitutional essentials and matters of basic justice,but such restrictions could not be fully defended and would not be conducive to the realization of justice.Public reason does not completely exclude the appeal of non-public reason.Even in a well-ordered society,citizens are allowed to resort to non-public reason,as long as his conclusions can be supported by public reason alone.This tolerance is considered to be conducive to political trust and solidarity.Regarding the question of the normative basis of public reason,many scholars advocate respect for people as the normative basis of public reason.But respect for people does not provide sufficient justification for the limits of public reason,and the connection with coercive power reduces the subject of public reason.Thesecond may be autonomy.However,the concept of ethical autonomy cannot be used as an argumentation basis for anti-perfectionist liberalism.Only political autonomy as a political value can lay the foundation for public reason.The normative meaning of political autonomy is not as clear as ethical autonomy.Therefore,autonomy cannot be the ultimate explanation of the normative basis of public reason.In fact,the normative basis of the idea of public reason lies in the political value of justice.Society exists as a system of fair cooperation between free and equal citizens,so the principles governing the basic structure of society must be justified on the basis of public justification if it is to be just.Hume’s skepticism of practical reason shows that the understanding of moral motivation is based on the idea of practical reason.Rawls adopted a Kantian concept of practical reason: man is both reasonable and rational.Man is reasonable,which means that he has a desire to treat others fairly,and the requirement of public reason is the concrete manifestation of treating others fairly.Therefore,reasonableness can provide motivation for citizens to respect public reason.People are rational,which means that we can expect them to reach an overlapping consensus on the pre-existing conception of justice,because this conceptions of justice can greatly enhance their good.Therefore,reason can also provide motivation for citizens to respect public reason.