Academic

Ralston on Talisse on Dewey & Pluralism

By Lawrence Solum

Shane J. Ralston (University of Maine) has posted Deweyan Democracy and Pluralism: A Reunion (Social Philosophy Today, vol. 25, forthcoming) on SSRN.  Here is the abstract:

What Talisse refers to as his pluralist objection states that Deweyan democracy, or John Dewey's theory of democracy as contemporary Dewey scholars understand it, resembles a thick account, that is, a theory establishing a set of prior restraints on the values that can count as legitimate within a democratic community, and thus is incompatible with pluralism, at least insofar as contemporary political theorists define that term. In this paper, I argue that undermining Talisse's pluralist objection permits the reunion of Deweyan democracy and pluralism-two ideas torn asunder by Talisse's misreading of the works of Dewey and Deweyans.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on January 02, 2009 (boomark / email).