A knowledge problem for the civic friendship view of political liberalism

William Schumacher

Politics, Philosophy & Economics, 2026, vol. 25, issue 3, 308-324

Abstract: John Rawls and those sympathetic to his views defend a moral principle called the criterion of reciprocity. Some argue that the moral reasons for complying with the criterion of reciprocity are derived from civic friendship, a valuable relationship of collective agency that one can sustain with one's fellow citizens. In this article, I pose what I call the knowledge problem for civic friendship. I argue that citizens have only limited information about whether others are complying with the criterion of reciprocity. Furthermore, I argue that this fact means that citizens only have weak moral reasons to comply with the criterion of reciprocity.

Keywords: John Rawls; political liberalism; civic friendship; reciprocity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:pophec:v:25:y:2026:i:3:p:308-324

DOI: 10.1177/1470594X251365689

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