Dissertation Abstract
A Critical Study of Liberalism
by
Robert Basil Talisse
Degree: Ph.D.
Year: 2001
Pages: 205
Institution:
Advisor: Peter
Simpson
Source: DAI, 61, no. 12A (2001): p. 4809
Standard
No: ISBN: 0-493-05366-2
There is a fundamental problem confronting
theorists of democracy. Can a democratic society propose a philosophical
account of its practices and Institutions that is at once adequately robust to
answer antidemocrats and sufficiently inclusive to win the assent of citizens
who disagree about philosophical, moral, and religious essentials? A robust
theory will have to draw upon some complex and controversial philosophical
premises, and will thereby fail to be neutral about the content of these
premises. Hence it seems it must fail to respect the deep pluralism
characteristic of a free society. Anything less than a robust philosophical
theory, however, will raise questions of why anyone should prefer democracy to
mild oligarchy or peaceful tyranny. This
is the challenge.
This dissertation critically evaluates
liberalism, the dominant attempt in the tradition of political philosophy to
provide a philosophical foundation for democracy. Arguing that both the
traditional varieties of liberal theory (as found in the works of John Locke,
Immanuel Kant, and J. S. Mill) and also more recent formulations (as found in
the works of John Rawls and Richard Rorty) founder on the challenge presented above,
the author concludes that there is a need for a "post-liberal"
account of democracy, one which can answer the arguments of opponents of
democracy and respect pluralism at the same time.
Drawing upon the work of C.
S. Peirce and in particular upon the idea of a "community of
inquiry," the author argues for a discursive theory of democracy to meet
this need. The discursive theory proposes an epistemic argument for democracy
against tyranny and other antidemocratic regimes, but at the same time
acknowledges fallibilism and thus can accommodate deep pluralism. Although the
resulting democratic theory is not a liberal one insofar as it rejects the
liberal doctrine of official state neutrality, it eschews the problems
confronting communitarian forms of antiliberalism by insisting that the
formative role of the state is epistemological and not moral.
SUBJECT(S)
Descriptor: PHILOSOPHY
POLITICAL
SCIENCE, GENERAL
Accession
No: AAI9997126
Provider: OCLC
Database: Dissertations