TY - JOUR N2 - John Rawls’s idea of the ‘veil of ignorance’ offers an opportunity to reflect on liberal‑democratic freedom of speech. Rawls’s method is to make political rules a priori, i.e. to give them the status of general principles hopefully applicable in most cases of real life. The rules of liberal‑democratic justice are formal in a way that makes them comparable to rules of formal logic. Encouraged by this similarity, we may ask: What logical form should be given to publicly discussed opinions allowed in a liberal democracy – when ‘allowed’ is meant in its legal or moral sense? The opinions expressed in the form of the particular judgment („Some S’s are P’s”) should obviously be always allowed in a public debate. But we must note that liberal democracies of our time tend to be more and more essentialist in the matter of ‘political correctness’. However, it is dangerous for law and political decisions to follow this new form of social prejudice. Liberal democracy turns in such circumstances into ‘ideological democracy’, and therefore becomes one that is no longer ‘liberal’. The opinions expressed in the form of general judgments („All S’s are P’s”) should always be permitted in public debate but only as a rhetorical (or emphatic) way of presenting personal beliefs. We should not try to make a political use of the logical ‘principle of double negation’. In logic, it is natural to assume that „Every S is P” implies that „No S is not‑P”. But in politics every citizen should be allowed to say instead that „Some S’s are not‑P’s”. The rules of law and political correctness must not restrict our freedom in this respect. L1 - http://www.czasopisma.pan.pl/Content/121746/PDF-MASTER/2021-04-PFIL-08-Kowalik.pdf L2 - http://www.czasopisma.pan.pl/Content/121746 PY - 2021 IS - No 4 EP - 143 DO - 10.24425/pfns.2021.138978 KW - democracy KW - equality KW - freedom of speech KW - ideology KW - liberalism KW - logic KW - political correctness KW - rhetoric KW - veil of ignorance A1 - Kowalik, Łukasz PB - Komitet Nauk Filozoficznych PAN PB - Wydział Filozofii Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego DA - 2021.12.16 T1 - Liberal democracy and its ideological double SP - 121 UR - http://www.czasopisma.pan.pl/dlibra/publication/edition/121746 T2 - Przegląd Filozoficzny. Nowa Seria ER -