Shared Values, Social Unity, and Liberty

Public Affairs Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 25-49, 2005

Posted: 14 Dec 2007

Abstract

May social unity - the unity of a society or social group - be a matter of sharing values? Political philosophers disagree on this topic. Kymlicka answers: No. Devlin and Rawls answer: Yes. It is argued that given one common 'summative' account of sharing values a negative answer is correct. A positive answer is correct, however, given the plural subject account of sharing values. Given this account, those who share values are unified in a substantial way by their participation in a joint commitment. Some consequences of such sharing of values for the liberty of the people involved are noted.

Keywords: Commitment, Liberty, Political Philosophy, Share, Unity, Value

Suggested Citation

Gilbert, Margaret P., Shared Values, Social Unity, and Liberty. Public Affairs Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 25-49, 2005, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1071257

Margaret P. Gilbert (Contact Author)

University of California, Irvine ( email )

Humanities Office Building
Irvine, CA 92697-4555
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=5365

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Abstract Views
799
PlumX Metrics