Liberalism vs. Communitarianism

v    Readings for Today

Ø    Liberalism

Ø    Communitarianism

Ø    Nussbaum “In Defense of Universal Values” (Liberalism is a universalism )

v    Readings for Thursaday

Ø    Multiculturalism: Culture constrains (all)

v    Rawls 2 Big Intuitions: Respect for Persons and the Bias of Contingency

Ø    Respect for Persons (the Kantian intuition that each person is to be treated as an end in himself) says we shouldn’t sacrifice any individual’s well-being in order to achieve some “greater good.” This is a problem for the Utilitarian.. Hence the maximin principle. But c.f. Harsanyi:

§       Counterexample: the Dog in the Manger.

Ø    The Bias of Contingency is the recognition that to a very great extent our situation in life is determined by the luck of the draw. Liberals, like Rawls, have the intuition that insofar as possible we should minimize the extent to which unchosen characteristics determine the kinds of lives people live. Communitarians object: these characteristics are not external constraints but, in some sense, are part of individual’s identities.

v    Positive and negative liberty

Ø    Welfare state liberals and libertarians

Ø    Negative liberty (libertarians): absence of legal constraint and state interference, property rights, right to participate in the market. See Nozik’s “Principles of Holdings.”

Ø    Positive liberty (perfectionism): Autonomy – “ideal of a free person…not subject to compulsion, critically reflects on her ideals and so does not unreflectively follow custom and does not ignore her long-term interests for short term pleasures.” Problem of paternalism. See Nussbaum’s version of objective list theory.

Ø    Positive liberty (preference-satisfaction version)

v    Contractarianism: Kantian vs. Hobbesian

Ø    Empirical assumptions about the motivations of rational choosers (or assumptions about what counts as rational choice).

§       Kantian Contractarianism: “the idea that individuals are motivated not by the pursuit of gain, but by a commitment or desire to publicly justify the claims they make on others.

§       Hobbesian Contractianism: Assumption of self-interest. Poses the free rider problem. Example: viewers who watch PBS but don’t contribute.

§       When unchosen characteristics and affiliations are factored out (behind the veil of ignorance) what is left to motivate choice? See the Communitarian critique.