DECONSTRUCTING THE CONSTITUENCY OF THE PUBLIC REASON. TAKING SYSTEMATIC CONSPIRACY THEORISTS OUT OF THE LEGITIMATION POOL

• Authors: Dumitru Adelin-Costin
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In the present article I argue that there is a class of conspiracy theorists that pose a threat to liberal democratic regimes, who tend to subscribe to potentially harmful conspiracy theories and can be regarded as unreasonable in two ways: i) do not accept the burdens of judgment; ii) are not motivated by a sense of justice. If we endorse political liberalism, we ought to partially exclude these citizens from the legitimation pool. The qualifier “partially” is important here, as I only endorse their exclusion qua bearers of an unreasonable conception. To the extent that they can employ other arguments, they will continue to be a part of the legitimation pool. Towards the end of the paper I investigate a potential counterargument to my position, which could be addressed by someone who postulates a Waldronian right to do wrong. I show that Quong’s distinction between a right to do wrong and a non-right to be unreasonable can be extended in this instance and thus invalidate this potential criticism.

Keywords

EN

JUDGMENT; CONSPIRACY THEORISTS; LEGITIMATION POOL; WALDRONIAN

• Publisher: Institute of Philosophy, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Filozofia (Philosophy)
• Year: 2020
• Volume: 75
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 263 – 278

Contributors

author

Dumitru Adelin-Costin

• National University of Political Science and Public Administration, Expoziției no.30A, Bucharest, Romania

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31577/filozofia.2020.75.4.1