正当性基础与罗尔斯的公共理性

The Foundation of Legitimacy and Rawls's Public Reason

政治正当性问题是当代政治哲学的基本问题,对其的解答在西方观念史上大致经历了从客观自然法向主观同意的转变。近代以来,社会契约论成为了解决正当性问题的主要思路。正当性的现代内涵是人们的同意,不同形式的同意则对应于不同的民主模式。罗尔斯以契约论的同意传统和公共理性作为正当性的基础,通过以公民参与公共政治活动为目标的公共理性实现政治自由主义的正当性辩护,体现了一种排除真理的协商民主思路。

The problem of political legitimacy is the fundamental problem in political philosophy.In the history of western political thought,its basis has changed from objective natural law to subjective human consent.Since the age of enlightenment,the theory of social contact has become the main method to solve the problem of legitimacy.The modern idea of legitimacy consists in people’s consent,and different forms of consent are related to different forms of democracy.Rawls inherits the Lockean tradition of consent.In his theory,public reason is the key to the justification of the legitimacy of political liberalism,which affords citizens to participate in public discussion and to realize public goods.Rawls’s theory manifests a form of deliberative democracy which excludes truth.