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Full Idea
Communitarians rarely distinguish between collective activities and political activities. Shared participation aids intelligent decisions about the good life, but why should that be organised through the state, rather than by free individuals?
Gist of Idea
Participation aids the quest for the good life, but why should that be a state activity?
Source
Will Kymlicka (Community [1993], 'need')
Book Ref
'A Companion to Contemporary Political Phil', ed/tr. Goodin,R.E/Pettit,Philip [Blackwell 1995], p.373
A Reaction
Kylicka points out later that local groups can be very unintelligent or prejudiced. Modern media have changed that picture, because participation can be with geographically remote people.
Related Idea
Idea 23417 If the state is neutral, there won't be sufficient community to support a welfare state [Taylor,C, by Kymlicka]
| 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] |