Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction by Will Kymlicka

Author:Will Kymlicka
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Botany, Life Sciences, Political Ideologies, Political Science History 20th Century, Science, 20th Century, Philosophy, Political, Political Science - Philosophy, Political Freedom & Security, General, International Security, Political Science Philosophy, Political Science, History & Theory, Political Science - History - 20th Century, Poetry, History
ISBN: 9780198277248
Publisher: Clarendon Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

8. THE SOCIAL THESIS

However, communitarianism is not just a doctrine about the self and its ends. Indeed, many communitarians reject Sandel’s idea of constitutive ends, and endorse the liberal belief in rational revisability. They criticize liberalism, not for its account of the self and its interests, but for neglecting the social conditions required for the effective fulfilment of those interests. Their concern is not to question the capacity for revisability and informed choice, but precisely to develop and sustain it.

For example, Taylor claims that many liberal theories are based on ‘atomism’, on an ‘utterly facile moral pyschology’ according to which individuals are self-sufficient outside of society. Individuals, according to atomistic theories, are not in need of any communal context in order to develop and exercise their capacity for self-determination. Taylor argues instead for the ‘social thesis’, which says that this capacity can only be exercised in a certain kind of society, with a certain kind of social environment.25

If this really were the debate, then we would have to agree with the communitarians, for the ‘social thesis’ is clearly true. The view that we might exercise the capacity for self-determination outside society is absurd. But liberals like Rawls and Dworkin do not deny the social thesis. They recognize that individual autonomy cannot exist outside a social environment that provides meaningful choices and that supports the development of the capacity to choose amongst them. They recognize and discuss the role of the family, schools, and the larger cultural environment in nurturing autonomy (e.g. Rawls 1971: 563-4; Dworkin 1985: 230-3).

Taylor believes, however, that the social thesis requires us to abandon a core liberal premiss—namely, the idea of a ‘neutral state’ which does not justify its actions on the basis of the intrinsic superiority or inferiority of conceptions of the good life, and which does not deliberately attempt to influence people’s judgements of the value of these different conceptions. According to Taylor, a neutral state cannot adequately protect the social environment necessary for self-determination.26 The social thesis tells us that the capacity to choose a conception of the good can only be exercised in a particular sort of community, and, Taylor argues, this sort of community can only be sustained by a (non-neutral) ‘politics of the common good’. It is only possible to sustain any sort of viable community—including the sort of community committed to liberal values of freedom—if the state protects and privileges the community’s traditional or dominant way of life. In other words, some limits on individual self-determination are required to preserve the social conditions which enable self-determination.

Taylor’s argument raises many issues. Indeed, a major portion of political philosophy in the last twenty years can be seen as responding, implicitly or explicitly, to Taylor’s challenge to work out the social preconditions of liberal freedom. To oversimplify, we could divide the debate into two broad headings. First there are questions about the social conditions for the development of the capacity for autonomy. This primarily concerns the raising and educating of children, and hence involves issues about the nature and role of families and schools.

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