Abstract

Liberal pluralism is a comprehensive account and justification of liberal democracy that rests on three premises: an account of the structure of morality ; an account of the structure of political life ; and an account of action oriented toward a conception of the good . In a critique, Robert Talisse contends that no coherent path can lead from value pluralism to the justification of liberalism. The only coherent options are to: affirm value pluralism while denying the general validity of liberalism; offer a general justification of liberalism based on non-pluralist premises; or acknowledge that the justification of liberalism can only be ‘political’ rather than comprehensive. In response, I defend the coherence of a justification of liberalism that incorporates value pluralism as a key premise