Rawls ve Rorty'nin liberalizmlerinde metafizik ve normatiflik

Conceptions of philosophy have experienced substantial changes in the last couple of centuries. For the practice of political philosophy, some of the most noteworthy of such changes are the perception of political philosophy as a field independent from other philosophical disciplines, the separation of political thought from fundamental problems of philosophy, and accordingly the abandonment of metaphysical justifications for normative statements. In this context, the present study aims to analyze John Rawls's and Richard Rorty's understandings of liberalism in terms of their rejection of metaphysics and the effects of such rejection on the normative potentials of their approaches. To this end, firstly, Rawls's political liberalism, which intends to demonstrate the possibility of liberal democracy under the modern conditions of pluralism, is investigated through discussions of his construction of a normative political framework without relying on comprehensive (religious, metaphysical, or secular) doctrines. The normativity of Rawls's liberalism is then examined by his central notion of 'reasonable' and his idea of public reason as a mechanism to resolve practical political matters. Secondly, an interpretation of Rorty's liberalism is presented with regard to its emphasis on a redescription of liberalism in non-metaphysical terms as informed by a pragmatist elimination of traditional understanding of philosophy aimed at truth. This is followed by an evaluation of Rorty's normative proposals such as conceiving liberalism as an attitude against cruelty, utilization of irony for filtering out metaphysical approaches, and thinking of cultural politics as a realm of normative transformation. In conclusion, the study finds that normative possibilities of both Rawls's and Rorty's liberalisms are restricted as a result of their rejections of metaphysical/philosophical insights. Among such limitations are the ambiguity of normative concepts, indeterminacy in practical political contexts, being normatively barren and confined to the status quo, and inability to accommodate critical perspectives.