Stout’s Democracy without Secularism: But is it a Tradition?

Kuipers, Ronald A.. “Stout’s Democracy without Secularism: But is it a Tradition?,” in Contemporary Pragmatism 3/1 (June 2006): 85-104.

This article critiques Jeffrey Stout’s suggestion in Democracy and Tradition that the practice of critical democratic questioning itself forms part of a historically unique secular tradition. While the practice of democratic questioning makes a valuable contribution to the project of fostering an “enlarged mentality” among the adherents of any particular tradition, Stout’s contention that this practice itself points to the existence of a substantive tradition, one that stands apart from and is not reliant upon the moral sources of the traditions it engages, remains problematic.