Religious conviction and political liberalism

I’m on the road, so posting will be a bit light until tomorrow. Until then, enjoy philosophers Jason Brennan and Kevin Vallier’s on Philosophy TV discussing whether political beliefs based on religious commitment are in tension with political liberalism.

Jason Brennan (left) and Kevin Vallier (right) on political liberalism and religion.

According to some prominent versions of political liberalism, coercive political force is illegitimate unless it is justifiable from every reasonable point of view. But there are many reasonable points of view from which religious beliefs cannot be justified. This seems to mean that religious political convictions are in conflict with political liberalism. However, Vallier resists that conclusion; he thinks that religious reasoning can have a legitimate role in political discourse. In this episode, Brennan and Vallier discuss Vallier’s argument.