Who's Afraid of Reason?

Abstract

This thesis examines the role of Reason-guided reason-giving in the deliberative democratic arena as a response to the theories of Iris Young, Chantal Mouffe and Lynn Sanders. I will aim to do two things. First, I will trace some path of logic-centered political philosophy and understand the role of reason as both subject and object in this genealogy. Secondly, and in the final sections I shall move to articulate the role of Reason, explicitly, in democratic philosophy. The theory that I will put forth is that the privileging of Reason, or of Reason-guided reason-giving, should be the ultimate standard for deliberative democratic discourse.