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63Religious exemptions, claims of conscience, and idola foriJurisprudence 11 (2): 225-242. 2020.According to the standard liberal egalitarian approach, religious exemptions from generally applicable laws can be justified on the grounds of equal respect for each citizen’s conscience. I contend that claims of conscience cannot justify demands for exemptions, since they do not meet even the most inclusive standards of public justification. Arguments of the form ‘My conscience says so’ do not explicate the rationale behind the practices that the claimants seek to protect. Therefore, such argum…Read more
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56Against Public Reason’s Alleged Self-DefeatLaw and Philosophy 40 (6): 617-644. 2021.Mainstream political liberals hold that state coercion is legitimate only if it is justified on the grounds of reasons that all may reasonably be expected to accept. Critics argue that this public justification principle is self-defeating, because it depends on moral justifications that not all may reasonably be expected to accept. To rebut the self-defeat objection, I elaborate on the following disjunction: one either agrees or disagrees that it is wrong to impose one’s morality on others by th…Read more
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27Review of Eklundh, Emmy. Emotion, protest, democracy: Collective identities in contemporary Spain (review)Contemporary Political Theory 20 (S1): 17-20. 2021.
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Negotiating Religious Exemptions: A Public Reason PerspectiveDissertation, . 2019.I put forward three reasons why religious exemptions from generally applicable laws are not publicly justifiable in a liberal democratic society. First, mere claims of the form “God says so and my conscience requires that I obey” do not explicate the rationale behind the legal provisions that they are expected to support. Therefore, such claims cannot be regarded even as pro tanto justificatory reasons for any legal provisions, be they laws or exemptions. Second, no matter how elaborate, reasons…Read more
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43Religious Faith and the Fallibility of Public ReasonsOxford Journal of Law and Religion 8 (2): 223-46. 2019.Rawlsian liberals define legitimacy in terms of the public justification principle (PJP): the exercise of political power is legitimate only if it is justified on the grounds of reasons that all may reasonably be expected to accept. Does PJP exclude religious reasons from public justification of legal provisions? I argue that the requirement of ‘reasonable acceptability’ is not clear enough to answer this question. Furthermore, it fails to address the problematic fact that justification on the g…Read more
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40Should Abraham Get a Religious Exemption?Res Publica 25 (2): 235-259. 2019.The standard liberal egalitarian approach to religious exemptions from generally applicable laws implies that such exemptions may be necessary in the name of equal respect for each citizen’s conscience. In each particular case this approach requires balancing the claims of devout believers against the countervailing claims of other citizens. I contend, firstly, that under the conditions of deep moral and ideological disagreement the balancing procedure proves to be extremely inconclusive. It doe…Read more
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Sofia UniversityPost-doctoral Fellow
Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Social and Political Philosophy |
Political Liberalism |
Areas of Interest
Meta-Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Social and Political Philosophy |
Political Liberalism |