Rawls, overlapping consensus, and stability for the right reasons

Book section : Chapter

This chapter examines Rawls’s idea of “stability for the right reasons,” which plays a central role in his argument for a political liberalism. It explicates this account of stability, which is secured by an overlapping consensus on a family of liberal conceptions of justice. An overlapping consensus is in place when the citizens of a well-ordered society each develop a sense of justice informed by a liberal conception of justice and fit this conception into their broader comprehensive doctrine. The chapter examines Rawls’s hypothesis that a political liberalism could be the focus of an overlapping consensus and various questions and challenges that this hypothesis raises. Finally, the chapter considers whether stability for the right reasons deserves the crucial importance that Rawls assigns to it.

Authors: Billingham, P; Taylor, A

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Host title: The Oxford Handbook on the Philosophy of John Rawls
• Series: Oxford Handbooks
• Publication date: 2026-01-27
• Edition: 1
• DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197754931.013.0020
• EISBN: 9780197754962
• ISBN: 9780197754931
• Language: English
• Keywords: political conceptions of justice; stability for the right reasons; comprehensive doctrines; overlapping consensus; religion; public reason; contractualism; well-ordered society
• Subtype: Chapter