Rawls: Religious Forms and Public Reason

Saving Liberalism from Itself

“…I am aware, for example, that both David Hume and Adam Smith emphasized the importance of emotions in cultivating virtuous behaviour (Hume [1739(Hume [ ] 2004Smith [1759Smith [ ] 2002. And I am aware that Rawls goes further than Habermas in making accommodations for spirited forms of reasoning (Nussbaum 2015, 9-10;Tamimi Arab 2022). This said, however, the broad contours I offer will be comprehensive enough to demonstrate how the many, seemingly unrelated iterations of liberalism outlined earlier in fact share some core tenets, the realization of which has undermined the capacity to imagine and enact alternatives to neoliberal capitalism.…”