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45Skepticism and the democratic idealThink 6 (16): 7. 2008.Robert Talisse argues that skepticism is required for a healthy democracy, and provides some illuminating and amusing examples of popular dismissive attitudes towards skepticism
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43An Epistemological Defense of DemocracyCritical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 22 (2): 281-291. 2010.Folk epistemology—the idea that one can't help believing that one's beliefs are true—provides an alternative to political theorists' inadequate defenses of democracy. It implicitly suggests a dialectical, truth-seeking norm for dealing with people who do not share one's own beliefs. Folk epistemology takes us beyond Mill's consequentialist claim for democracy (that the free array of opinions in a deliberative democracy leads us to the truth); instead, the epistemic freedom of the democratic proc…Read more
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43Two‐faced liberalism: John Gray's pluralist politics and the reinstatement of enlightenment liberalismCritical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 14 (4): 441-458. 2000.In Two Faces of Liberalism, John Gray pursues the dual agenda of condemning familiar liberal theories for perpetuating the failed “Enlightenment project,” and promoting his own version of anti‐Enlightenment liberalism, which he calls “modus vivendi.” However, Gray's critical apparatus is insufficient to capture accurately the highly influential “political” liberalism of John Rawls. Moreover, Gray's modus vivendi faces serious challenges raised by Rawls concerning stability. In order to respond t…Read more
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42Pluralism frustrates liberalism's conception of legitimacy. The attempts by Rawls and Galston to preserve liberal legitimacy in light of pluralism are critically engaged, and found lacking. The paper closes with a sketch of an "agonistic" liberalism.
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42A Teacher's Life: Essays for Steven M. Cahn (edited book)Lexington Books. 2009.This is a collection of 13 essays honoring Steven Cahn, presented to him on the occasion of his 25th year as Professor of Philosophy at the City University of New York. The essays address issues concerning the teaching of philosophy, the responsibilities of professors, and the good life.
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41Religion in politics: What's the problem?: Talisse religion in politicsThink 12 (33): 65-73. 2013.ExtractA few years ago, I, an American, was giving a talk at a political philosophy conference in the United Kingdom. My topic was religion in democratic politics, and I delivered what I thought was a splendid line of argument supporting the idea that religion has at most a highly constrained role to play in democratic politics. The audience was appreciative enough, but during the question and answer session, there emerged the charge that my paper had addressed a uniquely ‘American’ problem, a p…Read more
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40The author builds upon recent work by Allen Buchanan and develops a comprehensive version of liberalism based in a partially comprehensive social epistemic doctrine. The author then argues that this version of liberalism is sufficiently accommodating of the fact of reasonable pluralism. The conclusion is that the founding premise of political liberalism admits of a counterexample; there is a version of comprehensive liberalism that is sufficiently pluralistic.
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39John Dewey's Quest for Unity: the Journey of a Promethean Mystic – Richard M. Gale (review)Philosophical Quarterly 61 (245): 863-864. 2011.
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39An Epistemological Defense of DemocracyCritical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 22 (2-3): 281-291. 2010.Folk epistemology—the idea that one can't help believing that one's beliefs are true—provides an alternative to political theorists' inadequate defenses of democracy. It implicitly suggests a dialectical, truth-seeking norm for dealing with people who do not share one's own beliefs. Folk epistemology takes us beyond Mill's consequentialist claim for democracy (that the free array of opinions in a deliberative democracy leads us to the truth); instead, the epistemic freedom of the democratic proc…Read more
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38Recovering American PhilosophyTransactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 49 (3): 424. 2013.In The American Pragmatists Cheryl Misak (2013) offers a highly compelling and nuanced account of pragmatism’s founding and development. Her narrative is also unorthodox, as it undermines the story of pragmatism’s past that prevails among contemporary classical pragmatists.1 That Misak gladly acknowledges the deep sympathies between pragmatism and logical empiricism (2013: 156) is enough to place The American Pragmatists far outside the mainstream of classicalists’ self-understanding. Refreshing…Read more
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32Moral authority and the deliberative modelPhilosophical Studies 170 (3): 555-561. 2014.Gerald Gaus’s The Order of Public Reason: A Theory of Freedom and Morality in a Diverse and Bounded World is refreshingly ambitious. It seems to me that our field today is a little too eager to “[stay] on the surface, philosophically speaking” (Rawls 1999, p. 395; cf. 2005, p. 10). However, the scope of Gaus’s ambition complicates the critic’s task. When a philosophical work aims to present something as grand as a “theory of freedom and morality,” it seems plausible to think that the appropriate…Read more
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32Religion, respect and Eberle’s agapic pacifistPhilosophy and Social Criticism 38 (3): 313-325. 2012.Christopher Eberle has developed a powerful critique of justificatory liberalism. According to Eberle, justificatory liberalism’s doctrine of restraint , which requires religious citizens to refrain from publicly advocating for policies that can be supported only by their religious reasons, is illiberal. In this article, I defend justificatory liberalism against Eberle’s critique
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29American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia (edited book)Routledge. 2004.The _Encyclopedia of American Philosophy_ provides coverage of the major figures, concepts, historical periods and traditions in American philosophical thought. Containing over 600 entries written by scholars who are experts in the field, this _Encyclopedia_ is the first of its kind. It is a scholarly reference work that is accessible to the ordinary reader by explaining complex ideas in simple terms and providing ample cross-references to facilitate further study. The _Encyclopedia of American …Read more
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29New Trouble For Deliberative DemocracyLes ateliers de l'éthique/The Ethics Forum 12 (1): 107-123. 2017.Robert Talisse | : In the past two decades, democratic political practice has taken a deliberative turn. That is, contemporary democratic politics has become increasingly focused on facilitating citizen participation in the public exchange of reasons. Although the deliberative turn in democratic practice is in several respects welcome, the technological and communicative advances that have facilitated it also make possible new kinds of deliberative democratic pathology. This essay calls attentio…Read more
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28On Epistemic Abstemiousness and Diachronic Norms: A Reply to BundyLogos and Episteme 3 (1): 125-130. 2012.In “On Epistemic Abstemiousness,” Alex Bundy has advanced his criticism of our view that the Principle of Suspension yields serious diachronic irrationality. Here, we defend the diachronic perspective on epistemic norms and clarify how we think the diachronic consequences follow.
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27Symposium on Robert Talisse'sA Pragmatist Philosophy of DemocracyPrecisTransactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 45 (1): 45-49. 2009.
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27Democracy and ignorance: Reply to FriedmanCritical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 18 (4): 453-466. 2006.Several distinct epistemic states may be properly characterized as states of ?ignorance.? It is not clear that the ?public ignorance? on which Jeffrey Friedman bases his critique of social democracy is objectionable, because it is not evident which of these epistemic states is at issue. Moreover, few extant theories of democracy defend it on the grounds that it produces good outcomes, rather than because its procedures are just. And even the subcategory of democratic theories that focus on epist…Read more
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26Luck Libertarianism? A Critique of Tan’s Institutional ViewSouthwest Philosophy Review 31 (1): 187-196. 2015.
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26Understanding John Dewey (review)Newsletter of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy 23 (72): 14-16. 1995.
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25Sustaining Democracy: What We Owe to the Other SideOxford University Press. 2021.Democracy is not only a form of government. It is also the moral aspiration for a society of self-governing political equals who disagree about politics. Citizens are called on to be active democratic participants, but they must also acknowledge one another's political equality. Democracy thus involves an ethic of civility among opposed citizens. Upholding this ethic is more difficult than it may look. When the political stakes are high, the opposition seems to us tobe advocating injustice. Sust…Read more
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25Reply to Karin Jønch-Clausen and Klemens KappelEthical Theory and Moral Practice 19 (1): 267-271. 2016.
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24Democratic Authority and the Separation of Church and State, by Robert Audi (review)Mind 122 (487). 2013.
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24Deweyan Democracy and the Rawlsian Problematic: A Reply to Joshua ForstenzerTransactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 53 (4): 579. 2017.For over a decade I have been arguing that Deweyan democracy fails an intuitive test for political legitimacy.1 According to this test, a political order can be legitimate only if the principles underlying its most fundamental institutions are insusceptible to reasonable rejection. Crucially, reasonable functions here as a technical term; a principle is reasonably rejectable when its rejection is consistent with embracing the ideal of a constitutional democracy as a fair system of social coopera…Read more
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24The Democracy Reader: From Classical to Contemporary Philosophy (edited book)Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2021.This timely anthology gathers forty historical and contemporary readings edited for accessibility. Short introductions precede each reading and a general introduction increase student comprehension across the spectrum of readings. The volume is ideal for all levels of students in civics, political theory, and philosophy courses.
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23Response to LeverCritical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 18 (1): 82-85. 2015.
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Vanderbilt UniversityDepartment of Philosophy
Department of Political ScienceW. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy
Areas of Interest
Value Theory |
Philosophical Traditions |
Philosophy, Misc |
History of Western Philosophy |