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    The atomistic view of the self can undermine liberal society — Carmelics
    Home/Rights & Liberty
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    The atomistic view of the self can undermine liberal society

    Rights & LibertySocial Contract
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Liberalism presumes a context where individuals are members of a society that promotes particular values such as freedom and individual diversity
      ?

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    • 2.Liberalism presumes individuals are committed to such a society
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    • 3.The atomistic view of the self fails to grasp the extent to which liberalism presumes this social context
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Rawls's 'political liberalism' explicitly brackets metaphysical claims about the self, grounding liberal norms in overlapping consensus rather than atomistic ontology.
      ?

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    • 2.Liberal institutions can remain stable through reasonable pluralism without requiring any particular conception of the self as foundational.
      ?

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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Kant's autonomous self is relational and self-legislating within a kingdom of ends, not atomistic in the pre-social Hobbesian sense communitarians typically attack.
      ?

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    • 2.Conflating Kantian moral individualism with atomistic self-sufficiency commits a category error, attributing to liberalism a position its most rigorous defenders explicitly reject.
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    Topics

    Rights & LibertySocial Contract

    Notable Defenders

    Alan EhrenhaltcontemporaryEhrenhalt 1999
    Alasdair MacIntyrecontemporaryMacIntyre 1978, chs. 18–22; MacIntyre 1988, ch. 1
    Amitai EtzionicontemporaryEtzioni 1996
    Amitai Etzionicontemporaryeditor of The Responsive Community; director of Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies
    Amitai EtzionicontemporaryEtzioni 1993, 244
    Avner de-ShalitcontemporaryBell and de-Shalit 2011
    Charles TaylorcontemporaryTaylor 1989, 26–7
    Charles Taylorcontemporary
    Charles TaylorcontemporaryCommunitarian thinkers in the 1980s
    Charles TaylorcontemporaryTaylor 1985, ch. 1
    Daniel A. BellcontemporaryBell 2015
    Daniel A. BellcontemporaryBell and de-Shalit 2011
    David MillercontemporaryMiller 1995
    DoppeltcontemporaryDoppelt 1989
    Elizabeth FrazercontemporaryFrazer & Lacey 1993, 53–60
    Elizabeth FrazercontemporaryFrazer 1999
    Iris Marion YoungcontemporaryYoung 1990, 4
    Jane JacobscontemporaryJacobs 1965
    John RawlscontemporaryPolitical Liberalism (1993); Law of Peoples (1999); A Theory of Justice
    John Rawlscontemporary
    MacedocontemporaryMacedo, 2015
    Mary Ann GlendoncontemporaryGlendon 1991
    Michael SandelcontemporarySandel 1996
    Michael SandelcontemporarySandel 1981, 179
    Michael SandelcontemporaryCommunitarian thinkers in the 1980s
    Michael ShumancontemporaryShuman 1999
    Michael WalzercontemporaryWalzer 1983, 8
    Michael Walzercontemporary1980s communitarians
    Nicola LaceycontemporaryFrazer & Lacey 1993, 53–60
    Robert BellahcontemporaryBellah et al. 1985, Habits of the Heart
    Robert Nozickcontemporary
    Ronald DworkincontemporaryDworkin 1989, 489
    Seyla BenhabibcontemporaryBenhabib 1992, pp. 23–38, 89n4
    Stephen MacedocontemporaryMacedo 2000
    Stephen MacedocontemporaryMacedo 1990, 247
    Will KymlickacontemporaryKymlicka 1989, 166
    Will KymlickacontemporaryKymlicka 1995
    Will KymlickacontemporaryKymlicka 1989, 52
    William Galstoncontemporarysecond wave 1990s communitarian
    Yael TamircontemporaryTamir 1993
    Edmund Burkemodern
    John Stuart Millmodern
    Ludwig Wittgensteinmodern
    Martin Heideggermodern
    Thomas Jeffersonmodern

    Related

    Conflating Kantian moral individualism with atomistic self-sufficiency commits a...Kant's autonomous self is relational and self-legislating within a kingdom of en...Liberal institutions can remain stable through reasonable pluralism without requ...Liberalism presumes a context where individuals are members of a society that pr...
    +3 moreShow less
    Liberalism presumes individuals are committed to such a societyRawls's 'political liberalism' explicitly brackets metaphysical claims about the...

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: communitarianism
    View source passageHide passage
    In an influential essay titled “Atomism”, Charles Taylor objected to the liberal view that “men are self-sufficient outside of society”. (Taylor 1985, 2000) Instead, Taylor defends the Aristotelian view that “Man is a social animal, indeed a political animal, because he is not self-sufficient alone, and in an important sense is not self-sufficient outside a polis” (Taylor 1985, 190). Moreover, this atomistic view of the self can undermine liberal society, because it fails to grasp the extent to
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    The atomistic view of the self fails to grasp the extent to which liberalism pre...
    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit