Hossein Hooshmand: Liberalism and Peaceful Coexistence

Liberalism and Peaceful Coexistence

The most important feature of modern societies is the diversity and plurality of reasonable yet mutually incompatible philosophical, moral, and religious traditions, which arises from the inevitable disagreement among citizens regarding their moral and religious beliefs and values. Such disagreement is not merely the result of individual or class interests, nor is it a consequence of self-deception or other irrational causes; rather, it is a characteristic of reason itself, which, when operating freely, manifests in different comprehensive philosophical and religious doctrines. Hence, in the modern era and within the context of liberal democratic systems, a reasonable moral-religious pluralism has emerged. This fact raises an important question: Is peaceful coexistence possible in a society composed of citizens who believe in reasonable but profoundly different moral and religious traditions? If so, how? In this discourse, by distinguishing between two conceptions of liberalism—namely, comprehensive liberalism or Enlightenment liberalism, as a philosophy of life, and political liberalism, as a philosophy of politics—we will analyze and examine this question. Enlightenment liberalism emphasizes the importance of autonomous personal decisions in individuals' lives and considers the value of religious texts and doctrines to be negligible. Political liberalism, however, does not make such comprehensive claims about moral principles for individual decision-making; rather, it is focused on presenting a reasonable and freestanding conception of justice that guarantees and secures the basic individual and political rights and freedoms of all citizens. Secular and religious citizens, who have fundamental disagreements about the importance and role of moral autonomy, tradition, and religious texts in life, can, in principle, endorse such a theory of justice or political framework for different reasons, and thus the possibility of peaceful coexistence based on respect for mutual interests becomes feasible. Political liberalism demonstrates that liberalism is a tolerant and conciliatory political tradition that can be accepted by adherents of different philosophies of life (secular and religious): a political view that can be the focus of an overlapping consensus among citizens and provide a common public reason for supporting a pluralist democracy.

Biography of Dr. Hooshmand

Hossein Hooshmand studied at the universities of Tehran, McGill, and Concordia, and his doctoral dissertation in the field of comparative ethics was written on the ethical foundations of global politics from the perspective of John Rawls. Currently, he is an affiliated researcher at the Institute for the Humanities at Simon Fraser University (in Vancouver, Canada). Political philosophy, moral philosophy, and philosophy of religion are among his research interests. Numerous lectures, articles, and notes on contemporary political philosophy have been published by him.

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Liberalism and Peaceful Coexistence

Hossein Hooshmand

August 11, 2022 Islamic Iran Nation Union Party (Fars Branch)

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Full text of the lecture as PDF

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