ABSTRACT
Personal reflective equilibrium obtains when the harmonious fit is between the judgments and principles of just one individual. Communal reflective equilibrium obtains when the fit is between the judgements and principles of more than one individual. There is a radical difference between how scientific theories relate to perceptions and how moral theories relate to intuitive judgements. The chapter investigates under what conditions communal reflective equilibrium is possible and what the status is of the judgements and principles that actually achieve a communal reflective equilibrium. Similar considerations apply to reflective equilibrium theories. Reflective equilibrium permits the distinction between how things really are morally, and how they appear to be. Reflective equilibrium, then, does find itself tested by the facts after a fashion. Even if the strongest intuition of every member of every group is the desirability of consensus, reflective equilibrium gives no clues as to which intuitive judgements are to be preferred as the basis of theorising when these intuitions clash.
