Category: Published Paper

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Democracy and Diversity

  By Academic, Civic virtue, Communitarianism, Conference Papers, Neighborhoods, NW Philly, Philadelphia, Political philosophy, Published Paper, West Mount Airy, West Mt. Airy Neighbors

This paper draws on my experience as a leader of West Mt. Airy Neighbors in the early 2000s as well as on my academic work on communitarian political thought. It was written for an International Conference on Deliberative Democracy held in Hangzhou, China in December 2004. It was published in Chinese translation in 2005 in a book edited by Bao-Gang He. An earlier version was presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association in 2003. Abstract One of the oldest arguments in the history of political theory is that strong communities are only possible where people live a life in common. And one of the central themes of participatory democratic theory is that involved citizens are only possible where communities are strong. Together, these arguments lead to the conclusion that strong, democratic communities must be homogenous. Homogeneity is frequently thought to be a prerequisite for strong communities… Continue reading

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Christianity in the Western Tradition

  By Academic, Biblical thought, Christianity, Conference Papers, Modern Political and Moral Thought, Philosophy, Published Paper

“Christianity in the Western Tradition,” in Don Thompson, Darrel Colson, and J. Scott Lee, Universality and History: Foundations of Core(University Press of America, 2002) An earlier version was presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Core Texts and Courses in April 2000. The link is to a slightly expanded version of the published article. This paper examines the place of Christianity in the Western tradition. It is a dissent from the idea—found in a wide variety of mid-century works—of a great tradition of political and moral thought that begins in Athens and Jerusalem and is rejected by the founders of modernity. On this view, Ancient Greek and Biblical thought share the aspiration to ennoble human beings. Modernity, on the other, builds on low but presumably more solid foundations. In this paper I wish to put forward a different story. My claim is that, though modernity fundamentally rejects the… Continue reading

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How Much of Communitarianism is Left (and Right)?

  By Academic, Communitarianism, Conference Papers, Political philosophy, Published Paper

How Much of Communitarianism is Left (and Right)?  in Peter Augustine Lawler and Dale McConkey, eds. Community and Political Thought Today (Praeger, 1998). An earlier version was presented at a conference on Communitarianism and Civil Society at Berry College on October 17, 1996 Abstract In the last few years, the conflict between communitarians and liberals has cooled. Communitarians have pointed out—and many liberals have recognized—that for all their criticisms of liberal political and social life, communitarians are firmly committed to the central achievements of liberalism: the protection of civil rights and liberties and liberal democratic government. Liberals have pointed out—and many communitarians have recognized—that liberalism can be defended apart from any commitment to the individualist, asocial philosophical anthropology found in philosophers such as Hobbes and Locke. Thus a liberal political theory need not neglect the inherently social character of human life. Nor need a liberal regime deny the importance of… Continue reading