Topical collection Synthese: Reflective Equilibrium: Conception, Formalization, Application

Brun, Georg; Betz, Gregor; Beisbart, Claus (eds.) (2024). Topical collection Synthese: Reflective Equilibrium: Conception, Formalization, Application. Springer

John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice has been highly influential not only due to its conception of justice, but also due to the systematic way in which Rawls justifies his theory using the method of reflective equilibrium (RE, for short). According to Rawls, the method works roughly as follows: We start with our pre-theoretical moral judgements and try to explain them using a systematic theory. This leads to a process in which judgements and principles are mutually adjusted to each other until a state of equilibrium is reached. For half a century, RE has been very popular, not just in ethics, but also in philosophy more broadly. Philosophers of many persuasions appeal to the method, and some, e.g. David Lewis (1983), go as far as to claim that RE is the method of philosophy. For nearly as long, there have also been critical voices (e.g. Kelly & McGrath 2010, de Maagt 2017).

Given that the method is often mentioned, embraced and attacked, it is surprising, however, that attempts at an in-depth analysis of RE have been scarce. Only few authors have made a sustained effort to develop the method in detail.

The aim of this topical collection thus is to bring together papers that develop RE, analyze it using formal methods or investigate applications of it.

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