Communitarianism
Daniel Bell,
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
May 22, 2020
This article, a substantial revision of the version first published two decades ago, describes 'communitarianism' as a philosophical and ethical response to some of the principle tenets of liberalism as expressed, say, in Rawls's A Theory of Justice, disputing the idea that "the principal task of government is to secure and distribute fairly the liberties and economic resources individuals need to lead freely chosen lives." The article as a whole sets out three major responses to liberalism:
- One ground of objection disputes the idea that there is a universal set of principles; societies may order the principles differently, justify them differently, or even identify principles unique to their culture.
- Another set of objections is based on the argument that "liberalism rests on an overly individualistic conception of the self" and that "this view neglects the extent to which individuals are embodied agents in the world." In particular, this argument opposed the view that morality is the product of individual choice, and that there are wider social contexts to be considered, for example, a "communal attachment so constitutive of one's identity that it cannot be revised and rejected."
- The third argument states that liberalism has failed, pointing to the "negative social and psychological effects related to the atomistic tendencies of modern liberal societies," including poverty, inequality, greed, crime, and more. In contrast, "community is valuable—at least as valuable as the need for freedom, if not more so."
I think this article is valuable because it draws out the line distinguishing communitarian 'ethics of care' philosophies in open pedagogy and the prevailing neo-liberal and capitalist ethic of the marketplace. At the same time, it points to some of the ways the communitarian response actually borrows from liberal tradition, for example, by arguing for universalist conceptions of natural justice based in fairness or individual freedoms. But the article as a whole should be criticized; it functions mostly as an argument against communitarianism, frequently raising straw man objections (gated communities, karoshi (death from overwork), amputations) and ultimately defending "good forms of hierarchy that express morally defensible values." Image: Britannica, Chartism.
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