Is There a Distinctively Political

Normativity?

Jonathan Leader Maynard

and Alex Worsnip

A slew of recent political theorists—many taking their cue from the political writ-

ings of Bernard Williams—have recently contended that political normativity is

its own kind of normativity, distinct from moral normativity. In this article, we

first attempt to clarify what this claim amounts to and then reconstruct and in-

terrogate five major arguments for it. We contend that all these arguments are

unconvincing and fail to establish a sense in which political normativity is genu-

inely separate from moral

This text is Bernard Williams's 2000 lecture on the nature of philosophy, specifically focusing on the idea that philosophy should be considered a humanistic discipline. He critiques "scientism" in philosophy, arguing that philosophy should not be seen as a mere extension of the natural sciences, but rather as a distinct field of inquiry dedicated to understanding ourselves and our activities within the context of our history and culture. Williams also argues that history is essential to philosophical understanding, particularly in the fields of ethics and politics, and that ignoring history can lead to a superficial and ultimately unhelpful understanding of these concepts.

In this paper, I examine the epistemic foundation for reasonable beliefs in Rawls’

theory of Political Liberalism. The second section delves into Rawls’ argument for

an epistemic rationale for political liberalism through the burdens of judgment.

The third section explores Peter’s Opacity View as a potential solution to chal-

lenges arising from disagreement among epistemic peers. Then, I address Enoch’s

critique of public reason theory, which argues that expecting citizens to view

opposing beliefs as reasonable leads to Moore’s Paradox. In response to Enoch’s

criticism of public reason theory, I propose a nuanced perspective on epistemic

permissiveness. I suggest that on fundamental issues such as the existence of God,

reasonable individuals should hold beliefs with high confidence while allowing for

a margin of potential error. I argue that this approach promotes mutual respect

among citizens with differing views and avoids Moore’s Paradox