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Full Idea
Communitarians have difficulty avoiding the relativist trap. It seems they must claim that if one is born into a liberal society one cannot but be a liberal, and if one is born into a communist society one cannot but be a communist.
Gist of Idea
For communitarians it seems that you must accept the culture you are born into
Source
John Charvet (Liberalism: the basics [2019], 08)
Book Ref
Charvet,John: 'Liberalism: the basics' [Routledge 2019], p.101
A Reaction
Anyone who accepts the Hegelian view of history and culture seems doomed to such relativism, and Hegel is a communitarian precursor. This is a good reason for me to reject communitarianism, after a long flirtation. We can criticise our own culture.
| 22091 | Kierkegaard prioritises the inward individual, rather than community [Kierkegaard, by Carlisle] |
| 22814 | Our reliance on other people close to us does not imply any political obligations [Taylor,C] |
| 23420 | In a pluralist society we can't expect a community united around one conception of the good [Rawls] |
| 23413 | Feminism has shown that social roles are far from fixed (as communitarians tend to see them) [Kymlicka] |
| 23419 | Communitarianism struggles with excluded marginalised groups [Kymlicka] |
| 23415 | Participation aids the quest for the good life, but why should that be a state activity? [Kymlicka] |
| 18657 | Communitarian states only encourage fairly orthodox ideas of the good life [Kymlicka] |
| 22807 | If our values are given to us by society then we have no grounds to criticise them [Avineri/De-Shalit] |
| 22265 | I can't defend the view that the majority values of a community are thereby right [Sandel] |
| 20557 | Membership and inclusion in a community implies non-membership and exclusion [Swift] |
| 20555 | Liberals are concerned to protect individuals from too much community [Swift] |
| 22842 | For communitarians it seems that you must accept the culture you are born into [Charvet] |
| 23536 | Community is now a nostalgic memory, which no longer exists [Berardi] |