The Order of Public Reason: A Theory of Freedom and Morality in a Diverse and Bounded World

In this innovative and important work, Gerald Gaus advances a revised, and more realistic, account of public reason liberalism, showing how, in the midst of fundamental disagreement about values and moral beliefs, we can achieve a moral and political order that treats all as free and equal moral persons. The first part of this work analyzes social morality as a system of authoritative moral rules. Drawing on an earlier generation of moral philosophers such as Kurt Baier and Peter Strawson as well as current work in the social sciences, Gaus argues that our social morality is an evolved social fact, which is the necessary foundation of a mutually beneficial social order. The second part considers how this system of social moral authority can be justified to all moral persons. Drawing on the tools of game theory, social choice theory, experimental psychology, and evolutionary theory, Gaus shows how a free society can secure a moral equilibrium that is endorsed by all, and how a just state respects, and develops, such an equilibrium.

Author: Gerald Gaus
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 06/18/2012
Pages: 644
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 2.05lbs
Size: 8.80h x 5.90w x 1.70d
ISBN: 9781107668058

About the Author
Gaus, Gerald: - Gerald Gaus is currently the James E. Rogers Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arizona. He was previously Professor of Philosophy and Political Economy at Tulane University. He is the author of a number of books, including On Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (2008), Contemporary Theories of Liberalism (2003) and Justificatory Liberalism (1996). He has been an editor of the Australasian Journal of Philosophy and was a founding editor of Politics, Philosophy & Economics. His essay 'On Justifying the Moral Rights of the Moderns' won the 2009 American Philosophical Association's Kavka Award.

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