Public Justification

Abstract

This chapter develops a conception of the public justification of the moral rules that are the object of social trust. The goal is to explain how complying with moral rules and abiding by our personal values and commitments are compatible. When this compatibility relation is established, a system of social trust can sustain itself in the right way by driving appropriately trusting and trustworthy behavior, and motivating holding the untrustworthy accountable. When moral rules are publicly justified, that is, justified for each person by her own lights, the compatibility relation obtains and moral rules can then form the basis for trust and trustworthiness and so sustain a social system with a high degree of justified social trust-moral peace. The chapter explains precisely what is to be justified, the kinds of reasons that constitute public justifications, and how public justification is rooted in moral peace and social trust.