Turner, Jonathan (2021) Politics, truth, and respect. In, Sobel, David, Vallentyne, Peter and Wall, Steven (eds.) Oxford Studies in Political Philosophy. Oxford University Press, pp. 100-123. (doi:10.1093/oso/9780192897480.003.0004).
Abstract
Some claim that comprehensive liberalism is exclusionary on the ground that it ignores false but reasonable views. They claim that, insofar as the political liberal state bases its policy on views for which it claims reasonableness but not truth, it respects citizens in a way that comprehensive liberalism does not. The chapter argues that this is false. It distinguishes between ignoring a false view and ignoring the fact that someone holds a view (that happens to be false). Comprehensive liberalism does the former, but this is far from committing it to the latter also. Due respect is paid to citizens by taking appropriate account of the fact that they hold views other than those endorsed by the state. The chapter suggests a variety of ways in which this might be done. It argues that the comprehensive liberal state may reject views as untrue while respecting those who hold them because its attitude towards citizens is premised on the understanding that we are all interested in what really is just, and we are all concerned in trying to find out what that is. None of us wants a false view to be accepted—because it is false. The state respects a person’s capacity for reason by occupying the same epistemic ground as she does on the question of her belief, taking her to be a sincere but fallible inquirer after the truth, rather than patronizing her by remaining neutral in a way that she does not.
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