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Single Idea 22805

[filed under theme 24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 7. Communitarianism / a. Communitarianism ]

Full Idea

Sandel argues that liberalism is the politics of rights, while communitarianism is the politics of the common good.

Gist of Idea

Liberalism concerns rights, and communitarianism concerns the common good

Source

report of Michael J. Sandel (Procedural republic and unencumbered self [1984]) by Avineri,S/De-Shalit,A - Intro to 'Communitarianism and Individualism' §4

Book Ref

'Communitarianism and Individualism', ed/tr. Avineri,S. /de-Shalit,A. [OUP 1992], p.7


A Reaction

The first thing on the agenda of the common good should be to assert and protect the rights of individual citizens. How could there be a common good which trampled on individuals? I agree that the common good is prior (e.g. in a pandemic).


The 35 ideas with the same theme [nature of politic systems based on community]:

Obedience to the law gives the best life, and success in war [Socrates, by Xenophon]
Education in virtue produces citizens who are active but obedient [Plato]
Is there anything better for a community than to produce excellent people? [Plato]
Extend the treatment of the old and young in your family to the rest of society [Mengzi (Mencius)]
Friendship holds communities together, and lawgivers value it more than justice [Aristotle]
Friendship is based on a community of sharing [Aristotle]
Community is based on friends, who are equal and similar, and share things [Aristotle]
The best communities rely on a large and strong middle class [Aristotle]
Look at all of the citizens before judging a city to be happy [Aristotle]
Citizens do not just own themselves, but are also parts of the city [Aristotle]
Herder invented the idea of being rooted in (or cut off from) a home or a group [Herder, by Berlin]
Modern life needs individuality, but must recognise that human agency is social [Hegel, by Pinkard]
Human nature only really exists in an achieved community of minds [Hegel]
Moral individuals become ethical when they see the social aspect of a matter [Hegel, by Houlgate]
For Hegel, the moral life can only be led within a certain type of community [Hegel, by MacIntyre]
Only in community are people able to cultivate their gifts, and therefore be free [Marx/Engels]
Early Marx anticipates communitarian objections to liberalism [Marx, by Oksala]
The highest political efforts express our deeper social spirit [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
People only develop their personality through co-operation with the social whole [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
The things in civilisation we prize are the products of other members of our community [Dewey]
Early societies are based on community, and modern societies on association [Tönnies, by Watson]
Assigning a right based on a human capacity implies that the capacity should be developed [Taylor,C]
If freedom depends on society and culture, the greatest freedom is in shaping them [Taylor,C]
Community can focus on class or citizenship or ethnicity or culture [Kymlicka]
The 'Kantian' view of the self misses the way it is embedded or situated in society [Kymlicka]
Communitarians say we should pay more attention to our history [Kymlicka]
Autonomy is better achieved within a community [Avineri/De-Shalit]
Communitarians avoid oppression for the common good, by means of small mediating communities [Avineri/De-Shalit]
Modern liberalism fails to articulate a vision of the common good [Sandel]
Liberalism concerns rights, and communitarianism concerns the common good [Sandel, by Avineri/De-Shalit]
Communitarianism in epistemology sees the community as the primary knower [Kusch]
The best way to build a cohesive community is to be involved in a war [Swift]
In 1750 losing your family and community meant death [Harari]
Liberals treat individuals as mutual strangers, rather than as social beings [Shorten]
We have obligations to our family, even though we didn't choose its members [Tuckness/Wolf]