Symposion

Volume 5, Issue 2, 2018

Skeptical Problems in Political Epistemology

Eric T. Morton
Pages 135-154

Pragmatism, Pluralism, and the Burdens of Judgment

Robert Talisse and Scott Aikin have argued that substantive versions of value pluralism are incompatible with pragmatism, and that all such versions of pluralism must necessarily collapse into versions of strong metaphysical pluralism. They also argue that any strong version of value pluralism is incompatible with pragmatism’s meliorist commitment and will block the road of inquiry. I defend the compatibility of a version of value pluralism (the strong epistemic pluralism of John Rawls) with pragmatism, and offer counterarguments to all of these claims.