Abstract
The aim of this paper is to analyze Rawls's conception of political (public) culture, exploring whether his principle of tolerance (Political Liberalism) falls in moral relativism. The analysis consists of three sections. Firstly, the author introduces different critical accounts on Rawls's theory and identifies where they go wrong. Secondly, the author delineates the intellectual tradition of social liberalism from which sprang Rawls's conception, showing that he significantly alters the key ideas of dominant liberal justice of the Western world. In the final section of the paper it is argued that Rawls's idea of political culture is a cornerstone of just society and the spring of tolerance, providing arguments in favor of the idea that Rawls's conception of political liberalism is not morally relativistic but it is, however, in line with liberal pluralism.
Highlights
IS THERE A does not mean that this is a priori justifi-UNIVERSAL JUSTICE IN PARTICULAR able standpoint in the discourse of politicalPOLITICAL CULTURES?philosophy
Appeal to political philosophy to turn away Rawls’s later works celebrate the diversifrom conceptions of justice that draw jus- ty that is generated by “the fact that the tifications from a universal principle and free development of moral and intellectual accept the notion of justice being the mat- abilities leads to incommensurable differter of what actual people find to be fair in ences” (Pavicevic, 2011: 210)
One of the premises from the stability of institutions is dependent which Rawls infers his thesis is that politi- on political and not metaphysical concepcal conception of justice is possible only in tions implies advocating that the constia society in which there is a certain type of tution and the laws of a society are to be public political culture: “Justice as fairness “value neutral” institutions in guarding the is a political conception in part because it public good
Summary
The aim of this paper is to analyze Rawls’s conception of political (public) culture, exploring whether his principle of tolerance (Political Liberalism) falls in moral relativism. The author delineates the intellectual tradition of social liberalism from which sprang Rawls’s conception, showing that he significantly alters the key ideas of dominant liberal justice of the Western world. In the final section of the paper it is argued that Rawls’s idea of political culture is a cornerstone of just society and the spring of tolerance, providing arguments in favor of the idea that Rawls’s conception of political liberalism is not morally relativistic but it is, in line with liberal pluralism.. I am very grateful for the comments that I received at the conference which helped me to refine my initial arguments
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