Political liberals concede to the perfectionists that the liberal state
must necessarily make reference to some idea of the common good and
that it cannot be neutral with respect to morality. Nevertheless - while
granting that they cannot do without a theory of the good - they claim
that theirs is a minimal theory. It should be distinguished from
comprehensive views since it is a common morality which is restricted
to principles that can be accepted by people who have different and
conflicting ideals of the good life. According to Larmore, the proper
meaning of the notion of 'neutrality7
is as follows: 'Neutral principles
are ones that we can justify without appealing to the controversial
views of the good life to which we happen to be committed.'
12
And
Rawls states that his theory of justice is a 'political' not a 'metaphysical'
one, whose aim is 'to articulate a public basis of justification for the
basic structure of a constitutional regime working from fundamental
intuitive ideas implicit in the public political culture and abstracting
from comprehensive religious, philosophical and moral doctrines. It
seeks common ground - or, if one prefers, neutral ground - given the
fact of pluralism.'
13