Some Problems with Public Reason in John Rawls’s Political Liberalism

Political Liberalism ¹ is a major addition to the political theory of John Rawls. In many respects, it develops or alters views expressed in his famous A Theory of Justice. ² For changes that appeared in various articles Rawls published after the earlier book, Political Liberalism tends to offer nuances of difference. The most original chapter is about public reason, ³ and my comments are directed to that subject, which has now become a centerpiece of Rawls’s theory. I draw in Rawls’s other views as they bear on public reason.