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John Rawls Communitarianism

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Communitarianism in its modern form began as a reaction to the groundbreaking book A Theory of Justice by John Rawls, published in 1971. In this book Rawls makes an assumption that the main task of government is to “secure and distribute fairly the liberties and economic resources individuals need to lead freely chosen lives”(add reference or reshuffle wording), this is an assumption that communitarian thinkers dispute. Communitarian belief is drawn primarily from the insights of thinkers like Aristotle, whose Politics asserts, contrary to Rawls, that the “full development of individual capacities presupposes a certain kind of political community”(aristotle reference needed), and Hegel who links the moral ideals of the individual to ‘sittlichkeit’ …show more content…

This is not to say that the individual within the community is not important, but in agreement with Aristotle they believe that the moral significance of the individual exists within the notion of the community. This connection from the community to the individual (and in that direction) is where the school of communitarianism places its importance. Broadly understood communitarianism is a collection of interactions, these interactions interplay between communities of people within a set boundary, or within those who share a history. Thus less emphasis is placed upon the role of individualism, meaning that a person’s social identity and character is largely shaped by relationships created and nurtured within communities, this is the fundamental centre of communitarian philosophy. The aim of this paper is to critically explore the works of one of the main supporters of communitarian thought, Michael Walzer. We will explore his works by comparing and discussing in more detail than we have so far, the role of Rawls. The modern iteration of communitarianism being a reaction to Rawls it would be remiss not to summarise this groundbreaking work and Rawls’ influences, not at length but to the extent that we can accurately use it as a litmus test for the work of

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