Gerald Gaus, “The Order of Public Reason: A Theory of Freedom and Morality in a Diverse and Bound World” (Cambridge UP, 2010)
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What is the central problem about authority, freedom, and equality that the book addresses?
Yeah.
Hello everyone and welcome to the New Books and Philosophy channel of the New Books Network. My name is Robert Talise, and I'm the co host of the channel, along with Carrie Figter. In our bi monthly podcast, we'll be talking with philosophers about their newly published books. Today. I'll be talking with Professor Gerald Gauss about his new book. The order of public reason, a theory of freedom and morality in a diverse and bounded world. This book was published this year with Cambridge University Press. And Jerry Gauss is the James E. Rogers Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arizona. The other day I was driving in my car with my wife. And while we were at a stoplight, she witnessed a pedestrian littering.
She promptly rolled down the car window and shouted to the pedestrian Hey, pick that up. Lamentably, the pedestrian ignored her and walked on. It's interesting to consider the nature of my wife's action. She was not merely telling the pedestrian that she would like for him to pick up after himself. She was not simply expressing that she wanted the pedestrian to pick up his litter. Rather, she was commanding him to do so. She was asserting that there is something that the pedestrian must do. And when he walked on, we both felt that he had done something blameworthy.
How does Gerald Gaus describe his personal and academic background and what shaped his view of political philosophy?
This little episode is of a kind that's familiar enough. Having a society at all. Seems to require that we sometimes take ourselves Have the authority. A standing to tell others what they must do. And governments claim to have a rather extensive authority over their citizens. Now the deep question is this. Can relations of authority among free and equal persons be morally justified? Or is it all really just a matter of some people pushing other people around? This is a fundamental and complex problem for ethical theory and political philosophy. And Gauss's The Order of Public Reason is an attempt to solve it. Accordingly, the book is chalk filled with arguments and insights. Is a lot to discuss. So let's turn directly to the interview.
Hello, Jerry Gauss. Hi Bob. Today on New Books in Philosophy we are talking with Gerald Gauss. About his exciting new book, The Order of Public Reason. A theory of freedom and morality in a diverse and bounded world is Which was published this year by Cambridge University Press. It's an excellent and important contribution. In fact, I might even go so far as to say it's an achievement of sorts. Um the order of public reason makes a welcome return or uh to what we might call the big ideas style of political philosophy.
What are the three core commitments (disagreement, no natural authority, need for social rules) that create the book’s trilemma?
In this book. Uh Jerry offers and defends what we might think of as a unified theory of our moral, social and political lives. Drawing freely. And very helpfully I should add, from Moral philosophy, psychology, game theory. Economic theory, cognitive science. uh and many other uh fields that are often aren't discussed among political philosophers. Um so there's a lot in this book, folks, uh and we're gonna try to talk about uh a huge chunk of it at least. But first, Jerry, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came to philosophy?
Well Bob as anyone who's read my work knows I come from Buffalo. The Buffalo Bills figure highly in almost everything I write. Um I was went to the State University of New York at Buffalo. Working class family and it was the university down the street. And I first came to political philosophy through Hobbs. I was a softmoor. And this was the Current uh tail end of the student rebellions and everyone was talking about Marx and how we could love each other and I read Hobbes and I thought, well It would certainly be nice if first we didn't kill each other. And so Hobbes was a formative solu uh formative work for me. I read Hobbes. In undergraduate work several times. But then after reading Hobbes, I also had two other formative courses.
One was a full semester course on Rawls of the Theory of Justice, which had just come out.
How does the book criticize instrumentalism as a solution to the trilemma?
And then the last year was actually a course on Amatra Sen's collective choice and social welfare. These three figures Hobbs
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the central problem about authority, freedom, and equality that the book addresses?
0:02–1:28
2
How does Gerald Gaus describe his personal and academic background and what shaped his view of political philosophy?
1:28–2:55
3
What are the three core commitments (disagreement, no natural authority, need for social rules) that create the book’s trilemma?
2:55–4:27
4
How does the book criticize instrumentalism as a solution to the trilemma?
4:27–7:48
5
What are “rule‑following punishers” and how do they emerge from ordinary social interactions?
7:48–13:38
6
How does Gaus use game‑theoretic and evolutionary arguments to explain the stability of cooperative societies?
13:38–22:10
7
What is the “maximal set” approach to social choice and how does it help select moral rules under deep disagreement?
22:10–37:13
8
What democratic procedures does Gaus propose for turning the maximal set into concrete public policy?
37:13–1:03:11
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