How does this kind of reasoning fit with the dominant reasoning that exists in Western public discourse today?
First we have to realize that a version of Enlightenment rationality has been adopted as the dominant mode of public discourse in our culture. So, at a public university or a U.S. government ethics board, for example, only certain ways of talking about the world are acceptable. One way to deal with this is to be strategic. When we are working in a public setting that adopts an Enlightenment standard of what is “rational,” we might ask, “What is the best way we can communicate here, while still keeping our beliefs intact?” The best example of that approach today is the case Jeffrey Stout makes in his book Democracy and Tradition. Stout is trying to move discourse beyond an either-or approach to what counts as rational. He’s opening things up in relational, conversational ways and saying, “Look, if we want people who have been formed according to different rationalities and communities to be able to contribute to the common good, we need to really understand where they are coming from.”
