THE HABERMAS-RAWLS DEBATE THE HABERMAS-RAWLS DEBATE JAMES GORDON FINLAYSON Columbia University Press New York Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex cup.columbia.edu Copyright © 2019 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Finlayson, James Gordon, author. Title: The Habermas-Rawls debate / James Gordon Finlayson. Description: New York : Columbia University Press, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018043266 (print) | LCCN 2019011485 (e-book) | ISBN 9780231549011 (electronic) | ISBN 9780231164108 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780231164115 (pbk.) Subjects: LCSH: Habermas, Jèurgen. | Rawls, John, 1921–2002. | Political science—Philosophy. Classification: LCC B3258.H324 (e-book) | LCC B3258.H324 F5835 2019 (print) | DDC 193—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018043266 Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. Printed in the United States of America Cover design: Milenda Nan Ok Lee CONTENTS Acknowledgments vii List of Abbreviations ix INTRODUCTION: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING(cid:2)1 I. THE EARLY DEBATE 1. TWO NONRIVAL THEORIES OF JUSTICE(cid:2)17 2. HABERMAS’S EARLY CRITICISMS OF RAWLS(cid:2)51 II. HABERMAS’S AND RAWLS’S MATURE POLITICAL THEORIES 3. HABERMAS’S BETWEEN FACTS AND NORMS(cid:2)79 4. RAWLS’S POLITICAL LIBERALISM(cid:2)110 VI(cid:2)CONTENTS III. THE EXCHANGE 5. HABERMAS’S “RECONCILIATION THROUGH THE PUBLIC USE OF REASON”(cid:2)145 6. RAWLS’S “REPLY TO HABERMAS”(cid:2)174 7. “(cid:3)‘REASONABLE’ VERSUS ‘TRUE’(cid:3)”: HABERMAS’S REPLY TO RAWLS’S “REPLY”(cid:2)199 IV. THE LEGACY OF THE HABERMAS–RAWLS DISPUTE 8. RELIGION WITHIN THE BOUNDS OF PUBLIC REASON ALONE(cid:2)213 CONCLUSION(cid:2)243 Notes 249 Bibliography 273 Index 287 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Tony Booth, Tim Carter, Andrew Chitty, James Gledhill, and Joseph Heath, whose perceptive comments and criti- cisms of drafts helped me greatly to improve the book. Thanks also to all my colleagues at the University of Sussex for providing a supportive and intellectually stimulating environment. The best way I can thank my wife, Blaire Bresnan, and my parents, Kathryn and Jon Finlayson, whose love and support has been unfailing, and to whom I owe more than I can say in words, is not to write another one for a while. In the spirit of Bohumil Hrabal, I’d like to dedicate this book to all people who have not forgotten the fundamental house rules of human coexistence and who are still able to call things and events by their real names, and to recognize them for what they are. ABBREVIATIONS JÜRGEN HABERMAS BFN Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy (1996) BNR Between Naturalism and Religion (2008) CES Communication and the Evolution of Society (1979) DEA Die Einbeziehung des Anderen (1996) DS The Dialectics of Secularization: On Reason and Religion (2006) EFP Europe: The Faltering Project (2009) FG Faktizität und Geltung (1992) FHN The Future of Human Nature (2003) JA Justification and Application: Remarks on Discourse Ethics (1993) JS “Justice and Solidarity: On the Discussion Concerning ‘Stage 6’ ” (1989) MCCA Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action (1990) MW “ ‘Reasonable” Versus ‘True,’ or the Morality of Worldviews” (1998) ND II Nachmetaphysiches Denken II: Aufsätze und Repliken (1988)