Constructing Community: Moral Pluralism and Tragic Conflicts

J. Donald Moon

Published by Princeton University Press 1993

Constructing Community

Moral Pluralism and Tragic Conflicts

J. Donald Moon

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400821112

Overview
Contents

About this book

In developing a new theory of political and moral community, J. Donald Moon takes questions of cultural pluralism and difference more seriously than do many other liberal thinkers of our era: Moon is willing to confront the problem of how community can be created among those who have very different views about the proper ends of human life. Experiencing such profound disagreement, can we live together in a society under norms we all accept? In recent years, traditional ways of looking at this query have come under attack by post-modernists, feminists, and thinkers concerned with pluralism. Respectfully engaging their critiques, Moon proposes a reformulated liberalism that is intended to overcome the problems they have identified.

Author / Editor information

J. Donald Moon is Professor of Government at Wesleyan University.

Reviews

"Constructing Community is a noteworthy achievement. It deals with an impressively wide range of hard questions, and it is exceptionally fair-minded . . . . Moon produces a skillful and spirited defense of rights at a time when, on all sides, theorists are finding ways of disparaging rights for the sake of promoting a partial cause.... Political liberalism emerges from this book corrected and enhanced."—George Kateb, Princeton University

"Moon produces a skillful and spirited defense of rights.... Political liberalism emerges from this book corrected and enhanced."—George Kateb, Princeton University

In a wonderfully written and superbly argued work, Moon proposes a notion of liberalism that avoids the pitfalls of essentialist conceptions of the liberal political community while incorporating the emphasis on individual liberties, agency rights, and the discursive potentiality for agreement that have defined this intellectual tradition in the past.

"This work is a pleasure to read. Moon develops a liberal approach to political theory that takes account of the plurality of the views that people hold—not only about their lives, but views about what a good society would be. And he shows that, despite moral pluralism, a liberal strategy can be constructed for the organization of a society around the value accorded to human agency. . . . Moon deals explicitly and at length with feminist claims and their place in wider liberal theory, and he is one of the first political philosophers in this tradition to do that."—Jeremy Waldron, School of Law, University of California, Berkeley

There is much to admire in Moon's patient and wide-ranging analysis. . . . Constructing Community is a clear, and clearly important, contribution to liberal theory and practice.

"A pleasure to read. Moon develops a liberal approach to political theory that takes account of the plurality of the views that people hold-not only about their lives, but views about what a good society would be."—Jeremy Waldron, School of Law, University of California, Berkeley

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
CHAPTER ONE. Introduction: Political Liberalism and Plurality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
CHAPTER TWO. Moral Pluralism and Political Theory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
CHAPTER THREE. Appealing to Nature Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	36
CHAPTER FOUR. From Contract to Discourse Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	74
CHAPTER FIVE. Political Liberalism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	98
CHAPTER SIX. Rights, Private Property, and Welfare Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	121
CHAPTER SEVEN. Citizenship and Gender Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	146
CHAPTER EIGHT. Are Rights Exclusive? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
CHAPTER NINE. Democracy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	190
CHAPTER TEN. Conclusion: Consensuality—and Nonconsensuality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233

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