How can we construct a public perspective from which to assess government action and adjudicate rival claims in society? Reasonable individuals, reasoning together, often reach diverse and conflicting conclusions. The temptation is, on the one hand, to abandon reason and claim that all sorts of beliefs and opinion should weigh in; or, on the other hand, to appeal to objective reasons only, independently of whether people recognize them as such or not. Against these extremes, this book argues that we can find the resources to build a public perspective if we make two commitments: to respect people as autonomous agents and to endorse a shared ethics of beliefs. This is a set of epistemic and moral rules that inform the beliefs that we bring to the public forum and that make possible discussion and confrontation on a terrain that is adequately public. The revival of traditionalism and religious thought in our societies indicates more than ever that creating and maintaining a genuinely public perspective requires specific normative and epistemic commitments.