Communitarianism and Individualism

In the last decade much contemporary political and moral thought has been devoted to the debate between communitarianism and individualism. While individualists advocate the notions of rights, neutrality and impartiality, and see society as a voluntary association for mutual advantage, communitarians argue that individuals are never detached from their society, culture and history and that if they are to be properly understood they must first be examined in these contexts. Moreover communitarians claim that individualism makes it impossible to achieve a genuine community which can offer its members a just distribution of goods and a morally meaningful life. The essays in this volume reflect the many faces of this debate and examine its implications for the political arena.