•  25
    A Liberal Theory of the Good?
    Canadian Journal of Philosophy 17 (3). 1987.
    One argument often made in support of liberal political morality is that liberalism, both as a theory and as a practice, is neutral in regard to the question of the good life. In this essay, I shall criticize and reject this argument. Now this conclusion is anything but novel; one would have almost as much difficulty finding a critic, of whatever perspective, granting that liberalism is indeed neutral with regard to the good as one would have finding a liberal denying it. It is this phenomenon t…Read more
  •  13
    Vulgar Liberalism
    Political Theory 21 (4): 623-642. 1993.
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  •  16
    Liberals and theocrats: on Lucas Swaine’sThe Liberal Conscience
    Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 14 (4): 513-516. 2011.
    Lucas Swaine?s respectful manner of engaging with theocrats is at odds with the more heavy-handed arguments he gives to those who would reject his position. Furthermore, it is not clear that Swaine?s case can reach theocrats whose self-conceptions do not fit within the liberal idiom
  •  36
    Is public reason innocuous?
    Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 11 (2): 131-152. 2008.
    Rawls?s controversial idea of public reason is often criticized for being exclusionary and unfair. Yet it is possible to read the idea of public reason as being largely innocuous, especially if one attends to all the qualifications and specifications of the idea that Rawls articulated. This essay pursues such a reading, by systematically considering each element of qualification that Rawls built into the idea of public reason. Considered together and in terms of their cumulative effect, they mak…Read more