Chapter 9 - Pluralism in the ethical community

Summary

This chapter historicizes Immanuel Kant's philosophy of religion by showing how it seeks a middle ground between Spinoza's denigration of traditional forms of religiosity and Leibniz's dream of a new European respublica christiana. To contextualize Kant's attempt to advance Christian ideals in a philosophical manner, the chapter describes the religious politics of Spinoza and Leibniz. Kant, however, agrees with Spinoza that philosophy dictates the terms of cooperation between faith and reason. Pure practical reason presents the moral law and the religious postulates that confirm our faith in the possibility of its actualization. The purpose of the idea of the ethical community is to unfurl a "banner of virtue" that may rally a wide range of people. Muslims, on Taylor's account, view Shari'a as binding law and thus could not accept the idea of political autonomy that makes possible cooperation in pluralistic societies.