Skip to main content
Log in

Overlapping Consensus or Marketplace of Religions? Rawls and Smith

  • Published:
Philosophia Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this paper, I examine the claim that Rawls’s overlapping consensus is too narrow to allow most mainstream religions’ participation in political discourse. I do so by asking whether religious exclusion is a consequence of belief or action, using conversion as a paradigm case. After concluding that this objection to Rawls is, in fact, defensible, and that the overlapping consensus excludes both religious belief and action, I examine an alternative approach to managing religious pluralism as presented by Adam Smith. I show that Smith’s so-called “marketplace of religions” assumes and encourages religious conversion. I then offer objections to Smith’s approach from Rawls’s point of view, concluding that, while Rawls cannot adequately respond to the Smithian challenge, in the end the two positions are complimentary.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. For more detailed accounts of the conversion and authentic, radical change see: Heirich (1978), Richardson (1985), Snow and Machalek (1983, 1984).

  2. I use the following abbreviations throughout this essay: JFR – Justice as Fairness: A Restatement (Rawls 2001b), LP - The Laws of Peoples (Rawls 2001c), PL – Political Liberalism (Rawls 1993), PRR – Public Reason Revisited (Rawls 2001a), TMS - The Theory of Moral Sentiments (Smith 1982), TJ – A Theory of Justice (Rawls 1971), WN - An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (Smith 1976). I retain Adam Smith’s original eighteenth century spelling.

  3. Rawls represents this attitude well by beginning his autobiographical statement about his own religious attitudes with the claim that “my religion is of interest only to me.” Rawls (2009). This sentiment is not generalizable, as is evident by friends, family members, and neighbors deep interest in whether children will become bat mitzvah, for example, or be confirmed. If Rawls’s religion were only of interest to him, there would be no need to publish his autobiographical essay.

  4. Dworkin (1984: p. 64), originally published in Public and Private Morality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978).

  5. Abolitionist arguments are not convincing examples for inclusive views. The American civil war was not an exercise in reason at all. The resolution to the public debate came about only when those holding one opinion killed enough people and destroyed enough property that they were able to force their view upon their opponents.

  6. Peter Steinberger offers Calvinism as a counter example to Rawls’s claim. See: (Steinberger, 2000).

  7. How different Smith and Rawls are is a matter of debate. James W. Buchanan argues that they are more similar than is often allowed (1976). Samuel Fleischacker contrasts great differences (1999: pp. 184-240), and Carolina von Villez offers a more moderated approach, emphasizing methodological similarities and a common reliance on a “reflective equilibrium” (2006).

  8. See: Weinstein (1997), chapter three.

  9. This should not suggest that the impartial spectator is the analogue of the state of nature; Smith rejects the social contract. See: Khalil (1998).

  10. von Villez writes, “Smith proposes a thick notion of partiality that does not even exclude the natural partiality of individuals toward their own person from the judgment situation. Rather, the latter is entered into the impartiality procedure to balance the scales…” (von Villez, p. 123).

  11. I have in mind Nussbaum and Sen’s work on the capabilities approach. Both have written extensively on Smith.

  12. Buchana, p. 3. Rawls remarks that for simplicity sake, the maximin should be considered a monetary rule (TJ 155). He has this in common with Smith. Like all classical economists, Smith’s minimal standard is subsistence level. Rawls economics is not detailed enough for us to know what he is considering when he considers inequality.

  13. Cf.: Griswold (1999: p. 54) and Montes (2004: p. 52).

  14. Hume does not use the term “natural belief.” It was introduced by Norman Kemp Smith in 1941 (Gaskin, 1993: p. 316).

  15. I am reluctant to endorse a market-based metaphor for all of Adam Smith’s work. In this instance, however, it is useful for emphasizing the competition for adherents that Smith relies upon, and for the non-centralized community-based regulation of fanatical religions. For my opposition to a market-centered interpretation see Adam Smith’s Pluralism (Weinstein, forthcoming) and my review of Jim Otteson’s Adam Smith’s Market Place of Life (Otteson 2002, Weinstein 2004).

  16. Smith was writing before the advent of weapons of mass destruction.

  17. See: Weinstein (2004, 2007).

  18. Justice, for Smith, is a negative virtue and can be followed simply by sitting around and do nothing (TMS II.ii.i.9). See also: WN IV.ix.51 and TMS III.6.11.

  19. Rawls implies that witnessing only takes the form of voting, although this would be too narrow a restriction, precluding public discourse and debate. Thus, Rawls can’t possibly mean to suggest such a limitation.

  20. An unacknowledged criticism of conversion is simply that it is rude. Neither Smith nor Rawls acknowledge this, although Smith deals with it by creating public festivals where conversion is expected and therefore polite.

References

  • Barry, B. (1993). “Good For Us, But Not For Them,” The Guardian (p. 23). London: Guardian Newspapers Limited.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buchanan, J. W. (1976). “The justice of natural liberty” Legal studies, pp. 1-16.

  • Dworkin, R. (1984). Liberalisms. In M. Sandel (Ed.), Liberalism and its critics (pp. 60–70). New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fleischacker, S. (1999). A third concept of liberty. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galston, W. (1991). Liberal purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gaskin, J. C. A. (1993). “Hume on religion” The Cambridge companion to hume (pp. 480–514). Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griswold, C. L., Jr. (1999). Adam Smith and the virtues of enlightenment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanley, R. P. (2010). Scepticism and naturalism in Adam Smith. In V. Brown & S. Fleischacker (Eds.), The philosophy of Adam Smith (The Adam Smith Review volume 5) (pp. 198–212). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heirich, M. (1978). Change of Heart. The American Journal of Sociology, 83, 653–680.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hershovitz, S. (2000). A Mere Modus Vivendi? In V. Davion & C. Wolf (Eds.), The idea of political liberalism (pp. 221–230). New York: Rowman and Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khalil, E. L. (1998). Is justice the primary feature of the state? Adam Smith’s Critique of Social Contract Theory. European Journal of Law and Economics, 6, 215–230.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Montes, L. (2004). Adam Smith in Context. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Otteson, J. (2002). Adam Smith’s Marketplace of Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, J. (1971). A theory of justice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, J. (1993). Political liberalism. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, J. (2001a). “The idea of public reason revisited”, The laws of peoples. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, J. (2001b). Justice as fairness: A restatement. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, J. (2001c). The laws of peoples. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, J. (2009). On my religion. In T. Nagel (Ed.), A brief inquiry into the meaning of sin & faith. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richardson, J. T. (1985). The active vs. passive convert. Journal for Scientific Study of Religion, 24, 163–179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwartzman, M. (December 10, 2010). The ethics of reasoning from conjecture. Journal of Moral Philosophy, forthcoming; Virginia Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper No. 2011-02. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1730340.

  • Smith, A. (1976). In R. H. Campbell & A. S. Skinner (Eds.), An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations, 2 vols. Indianapolis: Liberty Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, A. (1982). In A. L. Macfie & D. D. Raphael (Eds.), Theory of moral sentiments. Indianapolis: Liberty Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Snow, D. A., & Machalek, R. (1983). The convert as social type. In R. Collins (Ed.), Sociological theory (pp. 259–289). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Snow, D. A., & Machalek. (1984). The sociology of conversion. American Review of Sociology, 10, 167–190.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steinberger, P. (2000). The Impossibility of a ‘Political’ Conception. The Journal of Politics, 62(1), 147–165.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • von Villez, C. (2006). Double standard – naturally! Smith and Rawls: a comparison of methods. In L. Montes & E. Schliesser (Eds.), New voices on Adam Smith (pp. 115–139). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weinstein, J. R. (1997). Adam Smith and the Problem of Neutrality in Liberal Theory. Ann Arbor: UMI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weinstein, J. R. (2004). Review: James W Otteson’s ‘Adam Smith’s Marketplace of Life. Mind, 113(449), 202–207.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weinstein, J. R. (2006). Sympathy, difference, and education: social unity in the work of Adam Smith. Economics and Philosophy, 22(1), 79–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weinstein, J. R. (2007). Adam Smith’s Philosophy of Education. The Adam Smith Review, 3, 51–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weinstein, J. R. (forthcoming). Adam Smith’s pluralism. New Haven: Yale.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jack Russell Weinstein.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Weinstein, J.R. Overlapping Consensus or Marketplace of Religions? Rawls and Smith. Philosophia 40, 223–236 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-011-9352-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-011-9352-3

Keywords

Navigation