The “Most Reasonable”, or Rawls’s Post-foundationalist Normativity

In this paper, two valuable aspects of Rawls’s legacy in the 21st century are argued to consist of a) his view of liberal-democratic legitimacy as centered around consent on the constitutional essentials (“legitimation by constitution”) and b) his post-1980 new normative standard captured by the phrase “the most reasonable for us”. The normative models and assumptions undergirding A Theory of Justice and Political Liberalism are contrasted, the rationale for rethinking liberal legitimacy is reconstructed, and the originality of Rawls’s new normative standard is highlighted with reference both to classical political philosophy and the post-Wittgensteinian philosophical horizon.