A Communitarian Defense of Liberalism: Emile Durkheim and Contemporary Social Theory (Stanford Series in Philosophy)

'Community, ' 'tradition, ' 'the individual', stand out prominently in today's intellectual landscape. In social and political theory and in religious studies they figure in the ongoing debates between liberals (champions of the individual) and communitarians (champions of the common good). With these debates and their potential conflict in mind, the author has constructed a timely reading of Emile Durkheim that captures the benefits associated with both liberalism and communitarianism. The book explores fundamental issues concerning freedom, rights, authority, public moral education, the relation between the public and the private, and the role of social criticism in democracies. Isolating the merits and liabilities of both liberal and communitarian theories, the author demonstrates that we need not be in the position of having to choose between them. "Community," "tradition," "the individual," terms that convey different meanings under different circumstances, stand out prominently in much of today's intellectual landscape. In social and political theory, and in religious studies, they figure conspicuously in the ongoing debates between liberals (champions of the individual) and communitarians (champions of the common good). With these debates in mind, and despite the potential conflict, the author has constructed a timely reading of Emile Durkheim that captures the benefits associated with both liberalism and communitarianism. The book explores fundamental issues concerning freedom, rights, authority, public moral education, the relation between the public and the private, and the role of social criticism in democracies. Isolating the merits and liabilities of both liberal and communitarian theories, the author demonstrates that we need not be in the position of having to choose between them. In the process of forging his via media, he engages with and sometimes challenges such contemporary theorists as Richard Rorty, Robert N. Bellah, Amy Gutmann, John Rawls, Alasdair MacIntyre, Jeffrey Stout, Michael Walzer, and Charles Taylor. The author's chief argument is that Durkheim develops a communitarian defense of liberalism. That defense addresses a host of issues: What is the normative relation between the private and the public, the individual and society? Are autonomy and authority irreconcilable? What is the social nature of knowledge, especially moral knowledge? Are moral discourse and the common good threatened by pluralism? Is public moral education coercive? What are the practices of social criticism? These issues are seen as joined by a single thread: the construction of a sophisticated sociohistorical account of modern democratic society that seeks to further the moral aims of liberalism and communitarianism. The author's normative model of liberalism describes individual rights and liberties as a salient feature of a socially entrenched common good. Liberalism, in this view, is construed as social traditions that morally unite individuals in common pursuits, including the preservation and extension of rights 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.