台灣的民主化發展至今超過20年，基本的制度已然建立且順利運行，人民也以生活在一個民主的台灣為傲。然而，有許多的經驗顯示，台灣的公民在進行公共討論時，常流於非理性的對立，以致公共討論無法有效解決社會問題，也無法賦予政策足夠的正當性基礎。我認為這是台灣民主發展中一個關鍵的隱憂。台灣能不能發展出成熟、理性的公共討論，成為我關懷的課題。這篇札記試圖借助羅爾斯「公共理性觀」的啟發，提出一個研究台灣民主政治與公共討論的架構。怎麼樣才是一種理性的公共討論？台灣的公共討論為何不容易看到理性的作用？如何建立公民的理性？這些問題與台灣民主化進程的發展息息相關，也是探討台灣的公共討論時，必需面對的問題。

It has been more than 20 years since Taiwan began its process of democratization. Basic institutions for democratic governance have been established and functioned smoothly, and people are proud of the lives they lead. However, experiences indicate that public discussion in Taiwan tends to lead to unreasonable confrontation, so that it can’t resolve effectively the social problem confronting it, nor does it give legitimacy to the public policies so adopted. I think it is a serious worry for the development of democratic rule in Taiwan. I am keenly interested whether Taiwan can have mature and reasoned public discussion. By borrowing from John Rawls his public reason idea, this research note aims at providing a framework for studying democratic politics and public discussion in Taiwan. How do we define reasoned discussion? Why does public discussion in Taiwan tend to be unreasonable? How do we persuade or train our citizens to abide by public reason? These questions are closely related to the process of democratization in Taiwan and they must be confronted with in the study of reasoned public discussion in Taiwan.