عنوان

Religious Liberty and the Rawlsian Idea of Legitimacy:

Number

LA126027

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

Religious Liberty and the Rawlsian Idea of Legitimacy:

General Material Designation

[Article]

Other Title Information

The French Laïcité Project between Comprehensive and Political Liberalisms

First Statement of Responsibility

Eoin Daly

Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.

Leiden

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Brill

Text of Note

Kahn has argued that the French Laïcité project has degenerated, in some of its recent incarnations, into an illiberal public commitment to a 'comprehensive' doctrine of enlightened or emancipated autonomy. He suggests it can instead be conceived in a Rawlsian sense, a concept of right derived independently of 'comprehensive' conceptions of the good-thus, merely an institutional appendage to liberty of conscience, distinct from any deeper social goal. The attempt at separating out 'political' and 'comprehensive' secularisms is best viewed through the prism of the headscarved school-goer whom the liberal state deems unfree. Can such a state intervene to ensure the autonomy of its child-citizens with regard to comprehensive doctrines, or is this to impose a conception of the emancipated rational life, freely lived? Is this autonomy of conscience distinguishable from an idea of the good life, a merely 'political' guarantee of self-determination-or is this distinction even viable? The figure of the headscarved child-citizen ostensibly challenges the Rawlsian assumption that the state's claim to neutrality between comprehensive doctrines can transcend or stand outside these doctrines, and represent anything other than an ends-oriented project of liberal emancipation. This arises because, on one view, the state must, in order to guarantee schoolchildren freedom to choose between ways of life, paradoxically first impose such a particular conception, of emancipation or rational autonomy. However, this article suggests that despite its ostensible allure, the dualism of 'political' and 'comprehensive' secularisms is not the best lens through which to critique the French Laïcité project. Kahn has argued that the French Laïcité project has degenerated, in some of its recent incarnations, into an illiberal public commitment to a 'comprehensive' doctrine of enlightened or emancipated autonomy. He suggests it can instead be conceived in a Rawlsian sense, a concept of right derived independently of 'comprehensive' conceptions of the good-thus, merely an institutional appendage to liberty of conscience, distinct from any deeper social goal. The attempt at separating out 'political' and 'comprehensive' secularisms is best viewed through the prism of the headscarved school-goer whom the liberal state deems unfree. Can such a state intervene to ensure the autonomy of its child-citizens with regard to comprehensive doctrines, or is this to impose a conception of the emancipated rational life, freely lived? Is this autonomy of conscience distinguishable from an idea of the good life, a merely 'political' guarantee of self-determination-or is this distinction even viable? The figure of the headscarved child-citizen ostensibly challenges the Rawlsian assumption that the state's claim to neutrality between comprehensive doctrines can transcend or stand outside these doctrines, and represent anything other than an ends-oriented project of liberal emancipation. This arises because, on one view, the state must, in order to guarantee schoolchildren freedom to choose between ways of life, paradoxically first impose such a particular conception, of emancipation or rational autonomy. However, this article suggests that despite its ostensible allure, the dualism of 'political' and 'comprehensive' secularisms is not the best lens through which to critique the French Laïcité project.

Date of Publication

2010

Physical description

11-41

Title

Religion & Human Rights

Volume Number

5/1

International Standard Serial Number

1871-0328

Subject Term

France

Subject Term

headscarf

Subject Term

John Rawls

Subject Term

laïcité

Subject Term

republicanism

Subject Term

secularism

Eoin Daly

Call Number

10.1163/187103210X506916

Electronic name

p

[Article]

275578

a

Y