Constructing Community
Moral Pluralism and Tragic Conflicts
J. Donald Moon(Author)
Princeton University Press
Published on 7. November 1993
Book
Hardback
252 pages
978-0-691-08642-2 (ISBN)
Description
In developing a new theory of political and moral community, J. Donald Moon takes questions of cultural pluralism and confronts the problem of how community can be created among those who have very different views about the proper ends of human life. Experiencing such profound disagreement, can we live together in a society under norms we all accept? In recent years, traditional ways of examining this query have come under attack by post-modernists, feminists and thinkers concerned with pluralism. Engaging their critiques, Moon proposes a reformulated liberalism that is intended to overcome the problems they have identified. The solution he proposes, "political liberalism", seeks to accommodate pluralism by basing the norms governing public life on widely shared values that, just because they are widely shared, will necessarily be "thin". At the same time, it seeks to provide space within which individuals and groups can live rich lives, pursuing their own distinctive ends and expressing their own particular identities.
This ideal of political community, however, may sometimes encounter tragic conflicts which cannot be resolved without repressing some differences, without excluding some perspectives. Because there is no final solution to the problem of political community, political liberalism seeks to remain open to the way in which any particular set of practices and institutions may silence certain voices.
This ideal of political community, however, may sometimes encounter tragic conflicts which cannot be resolved without repressing some differences, without excluding some perspectives. Because there is no final solution to the problem of political community, political liberalism seeks to remain open to the way in which any particular set of practices and institutions may silence certain voices.
Reviews / Votes
"There is much to admire in Moon's patient and wide-ranging analysis. . . . Constructing Community is a clear, and clearly important, contribution to liberal theory and practice." * Journal of Politics * "In a wonderfully written and superbly argued work, Moon proposes a notion of liberalism that avoids the pitfalls of essentialist conceptions of the liberal political community while incorporating the emphasis on individual liberties, agency rights, and the discursive potentiality for agreement that have defined this intellectual tradition in the past." * Choice *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New Jersey
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Trade binding
Dimensions
Height: 254 mm
Width: 197 mm
Weight
539 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-691-08642-2 (9780691086422)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
09/2012
1st Edition
Princeton University Press
from
€89.95
Available for download
Person
J. Donald Moon is Professor of Government at Wesleyan University.