Reason, Religion, and Postsecular Liberal-Democratic Epistemology

Ryan Gillespie University of Southern California

Abstract

ABSTRACTReason, religion, and public culture have been of significant interest recently, with critics reevaluating modernity's conception of secularism and calling for a “postsecular” public discourse. Simultaneously, one sees rising religious fundamentalisms and a growing style of antirationalism in public debate. These conditions make a reconceptualization of public reason necessary. The main goals of this article are to establish agnostic public reason as the conceptual guide and normative ethic for public debate in liberal democracies by considering the secular/religious reason boundary explicitly and to argue that this ethic of public reason requires a commitment to reason giving and a particular epistemic attitude but that it does not, nor should it, take precedence over first-order judgments. An ethics of citizenship based on the process of reason giving with the appropriate epistemic stance might be one step toward rectifying the problem of an increasing separation between enclave publics, even if, by design, it cannot solve fundamental disagreement.

Journal
Philosophy & Rhetoric
Published
2014-02-01
DOI
10.5325/philrhet.47.1.0001
Open Access
Closed
Topics

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Philosophy & Rhetoric

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