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Contact: [email protected] Enlightenment Liberalism and the Challenge of Pluralism by Matthew Jones Canterbury Christ Church University Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2012 Table of Contents Abstract 4 Acknowledgements 6 1. Introduction 7 1.1 Opening Context.................................................................................................................7 1.2 Research Question.......................................................................................................... 13 1.3 Definition of Key Terms................................................................................................ 17 1.3.1 Liberalism: Conceptual Discussion and Justificatory Arguments .......................18 1.3.2 The Challenge of Pluralism...................................................................................................35 1.4 Methodology..................................................................................................................... 42 1.5 Thesis Outline .................................................................................................................. 50 1.5.1 Part I...............................................................................................................................................51 1.5.2 Part II .............................................................................................................................................52 1.5.3 Part III............................................................................................................................................55 2. Enlightenment Liberalism 57 2.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 57 2.2 What is ‘The Enlightenment’? ..................................................................................... 58 2.3 The Enlightenment, or The Enlightenments?........................................................ 66 2.4 The Enlightenment View of Reason.......................................................................... 76 2.4.1 Isaiah Berlin................................................................................................................................77 2.4.2 Alasdair MacIntyre and the Enlightenment Project ..................................................79 2.4.3 John Gray and the Enlightenment Project .....................................................................83 2.4.4 Gerald Gaus and the Enlightenment View .....................................................................84 2.5 Moral Monism .................................................................................................................. 87 2.6 Marxism ............................................................................................................................. 94 2.7 Kant: Morality, Politics, and Political Association ............................................... 97 2.8 The Lockean Caveat .....................................................................................................113 3. Challenging the Political Legitimacy of Enlightenment Liberalism 118 3.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................118 3.2 The Romantic Challenge and the Superficiality of Atomistic Individualism ....................................................................................................................................................121 3.3 Nietzsche’s Enlightenment ........................................................................................131 3.4 The Communitarian Critique of Enlightenment Liberalism ..........................138 3.5 The Feminist Challenge ..............................................................................................161 4. Rawls’ Political Liberalism and the Departure from Kantian Normativity 180 4.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................180 4.2 Theoretical Foundations: A Theory of Justice ......................................................181 4.2.1 The Original Position and the Veil of Ignorance ......................................................187 4.3 Political Liberalism and the Problem of Political Legitimacy........................195 2 4.4 Embracing the Political: The Departure from Normative Metaphysics .....204 4.5 Reasonable Pluralism and Liberal Neutralism...................................................214 4.6 Liberal Neutralism .......................................................................................................215 4.7 Thin and Thick Pluralism...........................................................................................219 4.8 The Intolerance of Political Liberalism.................................................................226 5. Crowder’s Liberal Value Pluralism 229 5.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................229 5.2 Berlinian Origins − The Hedgehog and the Fox..................................................230 5.3 Berlinian Value Pluralism..........................................................................................243 5.3.1 The existence of universal values...................................................................................244 5.3.2 The plurality of values.........................................................................................................248 5.3.3 The existence of conflicts among values .....................................................................252 5.3.4 The incommensurability of values.................................................................................254 5.4 A Berlinian Value Pluralism? ....................................................................................259 5.5 A Distinctly Liberal Value Pluralism?.....................................................................265 5.6 The Paradox of Crowder’s Liberal Pluralism ......................................................271 5.6.1 Autonomy and the Right to Exit ......................................................................................275 5.6.2 Autonomy‐Facilitating Liberal Education...................................................................285 5.6.3 Exclusion Through Restriction ........................................................................................287 6. Rorty’s Post­Foundational Liberalism 293 6.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................293 6.2 Pragmatism and the Rejection of Truth................................................................294 6.3 Contingency: Neither Relativism or Universalism ............................................298 6.4 Conflict: Private Irony and Public Solidarity.......................................................304 6.5 Rorty’s Liberal Utopia: Reconciling Private Irony and Public Solidarity...320 6.6 The Anti­Political Nature of Rorty’s Liberal Utopia ..........................................333 7. Mouffe’s Radical Democratic Project 352 7.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................352 7.2 Laclau and the Empty Universal ..............................................................................354 7.3 Mouffe and the Illusion of the Liberal Democratic Consensus ......................366 7.4 The Position of Pluralism within Agonistic Politics..........................................381 7.5 The Agonistic Distinction between ‘the Political’ and ‘Politics’ ....................384 7.6 Agonism: Perfection and Emancipation................................................................390 7.6.1 Perfectionist Agonism .........................................................................................................391 7.6.2 Emancipatory Agonism.......................................................................................................394 7.7 The Inclusive Nature of Radical Pluralism...........................................................399 8. Conclusion 410 8.1 Thesis Overview............................................................................................................410 8.2 Liberalism and the Denial of The Political ...........................................................415 8.3 Scope for Future Research.........................................................................................420