THE ENTANGLEMENT BETWEEN CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, REASONABLE PLURALISM AND PUBLIC REASON IN RAWLS

Abstract

In 1971 the American philosopher John Rawls introduced to the world his work titled A Theory of Justice and in her the author defends, among other important points for the philosophy and the political theory, a constitutional theory of civil disobedience as a public, conscious, political and non violent act. From the Rawlsian idea of a constitutional theory of civil disobedience, in this work we wish to think how the civil disobedience formulated by the author in TJ would be "married" to his works after 1971, especially with Political Liberalism of 1993, since the author does not take up the theme in his later works. In this way, the hypothesis is raised that there is a continuity in the works of the American author, on which it is intended: (i) present the concept of civil disobedience coined by the author in the 1971 work; (ii) relate the Rawlsian concept of civil disobedience to the reasonable pluralism exposed by the author in his late works; (iii) and to discuss the role of public reason in Rawlsian thought and why one should appeal to the sense of justice of the majority - which once permitted an unjust law - in discussions about civil disobedience..