Kevin Vallier On Public Reason Liberalism In the Age of Artificial Intelligence

In this second interview with Dr. Kevin Vallier, we focus primarily on his work in political philosophy, especially his defense of public reason liberalism and its role in securing political legitimacy under conditions of deep moral and religious disagreement. Much of the conversation explores Vallier’s account of public justification : why the exercise of political power must be justifiable to citizens using shared or publicly accessible reasons, how polarization and declining social trust place strain on liberal democratic institutions, and why he rejects the idea that politics must be understood as a form of moral or cultural warfare. We also discuss the importance of epistemic norms, institutional restraint, and the background conditions required for liberal cooperation to remain stable over time. Later in the conversation, we turn to artificial intelligence as a pressure point for these concerns. Rather than treating AI as a wholly new political problem, Vallier considers how AI technologies may intensify existing challenges for political liberalism - including propaganda, epistemic fragmentation, coordination failures, and the erosion of trust in public institutions. AI is examined as a test case for whether liberal norms of public reason and justification can survive worsening epistemic conditions. (This interview follows an earlier conversation focused on Vallier’s intellectual journey and religious commitments.) About Kevin Vallier Kevin Vallier is Professor of Philosophy at the Institute of American Constitutional Thought and Leadership at the University of Toledo. He is a political philosopher working on liberalism, trust, polarization, and the foundations of democratic legitimacy. For more about his work, visit his personal website : https://www.kevinvallier.com/ Kevin also writes the Substack The Liberal Tortoise, where he explores liberal political theory and related controversies : https://liberaltortoise.kevinvallier.... Books by Kevin Vallier Liberal Politics and Public Faith : Beyond Separation (Routledge, 2014): https://books.apple.com/us/book/liber... Must Politics Be War ? Restoring Our Trust in the Open Society (Oxford University Press, 2019): https://www.kevinvallier.com/books/mu... Trust in a Polarized Age (Oxford University Press, 2020): https://www.kevinvallier.com/books/tr... All the Kingdoms of the World : On Radical Religious Alternatives to Liberalism (Oxford University Press, 2023): https://www.kevinvallier.com/books/al... Edited and Co Edited Volumes Arguments for Liberty (with Aaron Ross Powell ; Cato Institute, 2017) Political Utopias : Contemporary Debates (with Michael Weber ; Oxford University Press, 2017) Religious Exemptions (with Michael Weber ; Oxford University Press, 2018) A New Theist Response to the New Atheists (with Joshua Rasmussen ; Routledge, 2020) Social Trust (with Michael Weber ; Routledge, 2021) Public Reason and Diversity : Reinterpretations of Liberalism (Cambridge University Press, 2022) (These edited volumes can be explored further through his personal website above.)