Category Archives: Reading Group

Brettschneider Response to Quong on the Introduction and Chapter One of When the State Speaks

I would like to begin by thanking the contributors to Public Reason symposium for such careful summaries of the book and such thoughtful and probing questions. The discussions in the comments section have also been terrific and I am grateful … Continue reading

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Brettschneider Reading Group: Final

I, too, join the praise for Corey’s work and appreciate the invitation to participate in this forum. Writing an original, well-executed and compelling book, such as this one, on a topic that has been debated for so long and by … Continue reading

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Brettschneider Reading Group: Conclusion – Value Democracy at Home and Abroad

I’ve been appallingly remiss in fulfilling my duties this time around. In an effort to make good, I’ve spent several days poring over these excellent commentaries and discussions, as well as reacquainting myself with Corey’s wonderful book, which has taught … Continue reading

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Brettschneider Reading Group: Chapter 5

I want to begin by thanking Corey for the opportunity to read his wonderful book. I found it well-written, original, and thought-provoking, and I am sympathetic to many aspects of his approach. While I sometimes disagreed, I always struggled to … Continue reading

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Brettschneider Reading Group: Chapter 5, Religious Freedom and the Reasons for Rights

Along with the other commenters, I’m grateful for the opportunity to take part in this reading group. I find Corey’s book both timely and provocative; perhaps one of the book’s main virtues is the way in which it frames controversial … Continue reading

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Brettschneider Reading Group: Chapter Four, Democratic Persuasion and State Subsidy

I have learned a great deal from Corey’s book and the blog posts so far; I appreciate the opportunity to kick off our discussion of Chapter 4.  Because of the Thanksgiving holiday in the US I’ve written up this post … Continue reading

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Brettschneider Reading Group: Chapter Three, Democratic Persuasion and the Freedom of Expression

The main challenge of chapter 3 is to explain and defend the view that while the state is permitted (indeed required) to engage in democratic persuasion aimed at producing reflective revision (i.e., talk people out of certain illiberal views) it … Continue reading

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Brettschneider Reading Group: Chapter Two: Publicly Justifiable Privacy and Reflective Revision by Citizens

The Determination of Privacy: This is a provocative, original book, and Chapter Two is typical in arguing rationally for radical revisions in our ways of thinking. In order to convince us of that the state is allowed—indeed, is obliged—to persuade … Continue reading

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Brettschneider Reading Group: Introduction and Chapter 1

I’m very pleased to begin our reading group on Corey Brettschneider’s new book: When the State Speaks, What Should it Say? How Democracies Can Protect Expression and Promote Equality. In this post I’ll offer a brief summary of the introduction … Continue reading

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When the State Speaks Reading Group: Schedule

This post is meant as a reference point for any and all posts that related to our reading group on Corey Brettschneider’s When the State Speaks, What Should It Say? Below I list our reading schedule along with the name … Continue reading

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Reading Group on Corey Brettschneider’s When the State Speaks, What Should It Say?

I’m happy to announce that from 12 November we’ll be hosting a reading group on Corey Brettschneider’s new book, When the State Speaks, What Should It Say?: How Democracies Can Protect Expression and Promote Equality. From the publishers: How should … Continue reading

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The Order of Public Reason: Conclusion (and Appendix A)

We reach the end of the book. It has been a long-haul and I am grateful to everyone who has been involved. I’m going to use this post to achieve two aims: (a) to summarize the main themes of the … Continue reading

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ORR VIII.25 Further Functions of the State and Practical Paretianism

This section is very interesting, though it might be less exciting than the others in this chapter. It focuses on the question of state provision of public goods and addressing negative externalities. The last section takes up forms of “practical … Continue reading

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OPR VIII, Sec. 24, Private Property and the Redistributive State

I apologize for my tardiness. I have fallen behind in my readings, but I was also ill this week and am only today rising (from bed). I expect there will be a number of corrections to be made in what … Continue reading

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OPR VIII.23: The Justification of Coercive Laws

Overview of §23 I’m going to structure my discussion of this section a little differently. I’m also going to be a bit polemical about it. Perhaps this treatment will galvanize some discussion about this section, which I believe is rather … Continue reading

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OPR VIII.22: The Authority of the State

Overview of §22 Chapter VIII of Gaus’ book is entitled “The Moral and Political Orders.” Appropriately enough, it takes up the topic of the relationship between the moral and the political order. Section 22 deals with the place of political … Continue reading

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OPR VII.21: The Testing Conception

Overview of §21 The Deliberative Model, as is now familiar, is indifferent between the various rules in the socially optimal eligible set as possible bases of equilibrium.  It doesn’t select one of the rules as the favoured basis of an … Continue reading

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OPR VII.20: The Evolution of Morality

Overview of §20 In §20, Gaus explores the idea—foreshadowed in §19—that not only can a selection from the socially optimal eligible set of rules be justified as a result of convergence in a ‘Kantian Coordination Game’ (see §19.2), so that … Continue reading

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OPR VII.19: Coordinating on a Morality

On Gaus section 19 I should preface these remarks with the proviso that I am simply a guest blogger for this section, filling in for someone who dropped out, and have been unable to follow the earlier discussion in the … Continue reading

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OPR VI.18 Jurisdictional Rights

At the end of Chapter 17 we saw that the argument from abstraction cannot provide the determinate moral rules that are needed for social coordination.  Members of the public are left with a set of optimal eligible interpretations of the … Continue reading

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OPR VI.17. Arguments from Abtraction and the Claims of Agency

Summary of OPR.VI.17 Chapter VI begins by reminding us of an important conclusion from the previous chapter, namely, that the Members of the Public (MoP) will be confronted with a large set of rules of social morality, and that with … Continue reading

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OPR V.16 Evaluating Proposals and the Problem of Indeterminacy

After specifying formal constraints on proposals (V.15), this section focuses on how to evaluate them, especially under conditions of indeterminacy. As with the previous section, I provide a summary of the major arguments and then raise some preliminary questions. I … Continue reading

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OPR V.15 Proposals

This post provides a summary of Section V.15 and then raises some preliminary questions. Summary In the last section (V.14), Gaus advanced the Basic Principle of Public Justification and developed a Deliberative Model for determining whether social morality satisfies that … Continue reading

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OPR V.14 Part 3: Resentment / Indignation vs. Authority

I summarized Section 14 in a separate post; here I want to raise a question about the reactive attitudes and authority claims that Gaus argues are essential parts of our ordinary moral practices. For the purposes of this post, I … Continue reading

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OPR V.14 Part 2: Sincerity and Shared Reasons

I summarized Section 14 in a previous post; here I raise some critical points about the question of whether public justifiability should include a shared reasons requirement, and how this relates to sincerity in public deliberation. Gaus rejects the requirement … Continue reading

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OPR V.14 Modeling Public Justification

This post provides an overview of Section 14 and explains the relationship of this section with previous sections; I make some critical comments in separate posts linked below. I hope I haven’t gone overboard, in terms of the total length … Continue reading

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OPR IV.13 The Reasons One Has (Part 2)

As we saw on Monday, Gaus believes that the externalist view of having a reason carries with it serious problems.  Furthermore, the attempt to decrease the diversity of reasons that one has through idealization is beset by the twin problems … Continue reading

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OPR IV.13 The Reasons One Has

As Keith pointed out in his last post, Section 13 is one of the most important, and likely to be one of the most controversial, sections of The Order of Public Reason.  Although there have been a lot of controversial … Continue reading

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OPR IV.12: Moral Emotions and Moral Autonomy

My apologies for posting this a little bit late. I came down with something and couldn’t get the comments put together as quickly as I had hoped and then ran into some compatibility issues with Word Press and my browser. … Continue reading

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OPR IV.11: Moral Demands and the Moral Emotions

Now that we’re moving into the fourth chapter of the book (and the second month of the reading group) I thought that it would be helpful to begin my comments by briefly summarizing the ground that we’ve already covered. Doing … Continue reading

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OPR III.10: Moral Rules as Social Rules

Chapter 9 concluded with the requirement that an adequate account of social rules must be able explain how rule-based reasons can generally override, and yet be somehow responsive to, the other kinds of normative reasons we consider in our deliberations.  … Continue reading

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OPR III.9: The Rationality of Rules

Human beings are social and rule-following creatures.  Gaus has been arguing that our status as rule-followers is central to explaining our social character – that the development of cheater detection and punishment was necessary for the evolution of complex social … Continue reading

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OPR III.8: Deontic Reasoning

Society depends upon rules—we cannot live together successfully without some shared set of social rules. But what exactly is a rule, and how do people act upon them?Quoting Gaus, “Rules…identify certain general characteristics or properties, and issue directives for actions … Continue reading

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OPR, Ch. 3.7: The Evolution of Rule-Following Punishers

Social cooperation is good—we do better with it than without. But social cooperation depends upon trust—we need to be able to count on others being cooperative and disinclined to cheat, break the rules, take advantage of us, and so on. … Continue reading

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OPR, Ch. 2.6: Orthodox Instrumentalism

Summary We saw in section 2.5 that Gaus gives his refutations of attempts to derive principles of morality with revisionist accounts of rational choice in interactive contexts (again, game theoretic contexts). In section 2.6 Gaus considers what he takes to … Continue reading

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OPR, Ch.2.5: Revisionist Theories

Summary Sections 2.5 and 2.6 form the core argument of this chapter. These sections can be studied independently of each other, but I think it worthwhile to first take a look at how they work together to support Gaus’ main … Continue reading

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OPR Ch. 2.4: The Instrumentalist Approach to Social Order

Summary This section begins with a question that Gauthier poses, one that Gaus thinks we ought to take very seriously: why pay attention to morality’s demands when those demands can be so restrictive? Where does morality get the authority to … Continue reading

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OPR Ch. 1.3: Evaluative Diversity and the Problem of Indeterminacy

Summary Gaus begins this section by describing a Kantian proposal for how to reconcile the freedom and equality of persons with the authority of morality. First, we bracket our private ends-those things that divide us. Second, we focus on those … Continue reading

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OPR, Ch.I.2: Moral Authority among Free and Equal Persons

OPR attempts to show how moral authority can is possible despite disagreement among free and equal persons about the nature of morality. To do so, we must determine what moral authority is and the challenges it raises. Section 2 might … Continue reading

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OPR, Ch.I.1: Social Morality

Section 1 has a simple aim: to introduce Gaus’s distinctive concept of “social morality” and to describe its central features. Social morality is “the basic framework for a cooperative and mutually beneficial social life” and “provides rules that we are … Continue reading

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