ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Brian Barry’s proposal that uncertainty can cure dogmatic non-liberals of their ills. It discusses the merits of the idea that liberalism can be rescued by requiring that people are uncertain about their beliefs in virtue and the good life. The idea that liberalism includes an idea of how people should hold their political and moral beliefs is not new. Barry’s claim, that every citizen must admit some doubt about the truth of his or her ethical beliefs, recalls a classical argument for liberalism. In particular, the idea of a close relation between uncertainty on the one hand and liberalism on the other was common among thinkers such as Bertrand Russell and Karl Popper. The chapter also examines one of the arguments in favor of the idea of uncertainty. It explains main objections to Barry’s proposal and explores further arguments in favor of Barry’s attempt to save liberal neutrality.
