The paper illustrates the desirability of an anti-foundationalist approach to normativity
for the fullest realization of the liberal democratic project. The first section defends the
viability, epistemic and normative, of an anti-foundationalism inspired to the antimetaphysical
and anti-sceptical legacy of the founders of American pragmatism. The
second section, drawing on the deliberative turn in democratic theory and the capability
approach to autonomy, introduces what I regard to be the normative core of liberal
democracy. The third section fleshes out the desirability argument by looking at how a
pragmatist approach to normativity allows liberal democracies to address in a fully
deliberative spirit the challenges posed by the growing cultural diversity of contemporary
societies associated with contemporary processes of globalization.
