Jimmy LIM
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP)
Lim, J. (2023). Public reason and civic education: A Rawlsian framework [Paper presentation]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/public-reason-and-civic-education-a-rawlsian-framework/
SUB-THEME
Communities and Education
KEYWORDS
Public reason, civic education, moral reasoning, Rawls, active citizenship
CATEGORY
Paper Presentation
ABSTRACT
John Rawls’s concept of public justification is part of a broader concept that goes under the label “public reason.” The secondary literature suggests that his account of public reason is vulnerable to two objections. The first objection turns on the assumption that Rawlsian public justification is something that involves the participation of many citizens. On this assumption, Rawls’s account of public reason is unrealistic because it ignores the fact that many citizens in a real society may lack the resources (e.g. time, money, knowledge) to participate in the public justification of law. The second objection turns on the assumption that the “duty of civility” (the duty to offer public reasons in the justification of law) is something that falls on both government officials and ordinary citizens. On this assumption, Rawls’s account of public reason is unrealistic because it ignores the consideration that officials and citizens alike may not observe the duty of civility. In my paper, I resist the first objection by arguing that Rawlsian public justification involves the empathetic power to place oneself in the shoes of those to whom one disagrees with, in the course of evaluating the normativity of law. Taking my cue from Stephen Darwall (2006), I call this power the power to take up the second-person standpoint in moral reasoning. For Rawls, what makes justification as a mode of reasoning “public” is not a situation where every member of society gathers in some outdoor space to debate with one another (which would make justification an actual, historical, event), but the presence of an implied addressee (which makes justification a normative, second-personal, concept). In Rawlsian thought, citizens may pursue public justification collectively (inter-personally), in a raucous townhall, or intra-personally, without ever participating in face-to-face debates. I also resist the second objection by arguing that, in the context of a real society, the duty of civility falls more heavily on the shoulders of civic leaders than on ordinary citizens. Inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr., Rawls himself sees civic leaders as playing an important role in honoring the duty of civility and mobilizing ordinary citizens to take up the second-person standpoint in public justification. My paper sheds light on the place of second-personal reasoning and second-personal reactive attitudes such as guilt and empathy in Rawlsian thought. It provides resources for civic educators to reflect upon the importance of cultivating citizens’ capacity for second-personal reasoning, not just in the public sphere but also in more localized settings such as the classroom. It tries to answer the question of how to bring the idea of public justification (as second-personal justification) and its related reactive attitudes into the classroom—and to do so in a morally justifiable way—to help students learn and appreciate the political values of toleration, respect, diversity, and trust.
I would like to present my work as a paper presentation, under the sub-theme of “Communities and Education.”
REFERENCES
Darwall, S. (2006). The Second-Person Standpoint: Morality, Respect, and Accountability. Harvard University Press.
Rawls, J. (2005). Political Liberalism, expanded edition. Columbia University Press.
