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(2004) Philosophy of religion for a new century, Dordrecht, Springer.
On the proper roles of secular reason and religious reason in a liberal democracy
James Harris
pp. 329-348
In recent years, a growing controversy has developed concerning the kind of reasons that a person might legitimately appeal to in the political arena in a liberal democracy to promote or oppose coercive or restrictive governmental policies or legislation. As the lines have been recently drawn, on one side of this debate are such people as John Rawls and Robert Audi, defending political liberalism, and, on the other side, are such figures as Nicholas Wolterstorff and Philip Quinn attacking it. Although there are several other participants in this debate, I will concentrate on these figures in order to limit the scope of this paper and to sharpen the focus of the main issues of the debate. I shall sketch out the positions of Rawls and Audi, raise the objections voiced by Wolterstorff and Quinn from a religious perspective, and then defend Rawls, Audi, and liberalism against these objections.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4020-2074-2_19
Full citation:
Harris, J. (2004)., On the proper roles of secular reason and religious reason in a liberal democracy, in J. Hackett & J. Wallulis (eds.), Philosophy of religion for a new century, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 329-348.
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