The Liberalism Communitarianism Debate

In the tradition of John Rawls's A Theory of Justice, Delaney brings to the forefront one of the latest challenges to liberalism: communitarianism. Distinguished political scientists and philosophers provide a dialogue that enriches the arguments of both schools.

This book traces the progress of the liberal/communitarian debate. Beginning with an account of John Rawls's A Theory of Justice, d it goes on to provide clear presentations of the work of the main communitarians - Michael Sandel, Alisdair MacIntyre, Charles Taylor and Michael Walzer. Clear and accessible in style, with a guiding agenda of themes and issues, this book is an indispensable aid to students of contemporary political theory.

In this provocative and timely reading of Emile Durkheim the author isolates the merits and liabilities of both liberal and communitarian theories and demonstrates that we need not be in the position of having to choose between them.

Explores the disagreements between liberals and their communitarian challengers.

This title was first published in 2001: This book examines the liberal-communitarian debate from a new perspective. Communitarians argue that liberal theory neglects the significance of communities for the lives of their members. An examination of that argument reveals that there are deficiencies in the communitarian account of community. Identifying and remedying those deficiencies is the key concern of this book. Uniquely, this book addresses the deficiencies using Sartre's anarchist theory derived largely but not exclusively from an interpretation of the Critique of Dialectical Reason. Sartre champions the individual yet criticises liberalism. The tension arising from these two apparently disparate positions makes for a fruitful argument, enhanced by the connections made with Aristotelian and feminist theory, Hobbes and Rousseau. Finally, a method is developed for inquiring into the nature of associations which, it is argued, should interest communitarians concerned to avoid deficiencies in their account of community.

"Religious Goodness and Political Rightness" offers a stimulating, timely examination of the liberal and communitarian approaches to the conflicts between people's religious ideas of the Good and their political ideas of the Right. Coming from a non-partisan perspective, Huang argues that liberalism fails to see that politics cannot be neutral to all religions by equally ignoring them all, while communitarianism fails to understand that politics based on one single religion may lead either to political sectarianism or totalitarianism in a religiously plural society.

"Examines the debate between so-called communitarian philosophers such as Alasdair MacIntyre, Michael Sandel, Michael Walzer and Charles Taylor, and those who support forms of liberal individualism such as that found in Rawls's Theory of Justice. Her original and illuminating account of this debate focuses on the ways in which both sides have tried to appropriate the political and moral thought of Aristotle. She offers an analysis of six key concepts - community, teleology, happiness, justice, friendship and liberty - which play a leading role in both communitarian and liberal polical philosophy and are also central to Aristotle's account."--Back cover.