Communitarianism: Another Escape from Freedom?

Abstract

The paper seeks to present communitarianism as a new trend of socio-political philosophy, as well as to prove that it stems from the right criticism of individualism, but is contaminated with anthropological error and relativism.

Communitarianism stems from an opposition against individualistic society as a tendency to anarchy and atomization; it is also evoked by an impossibility to safeguard moral legacy. Communitarianism rejects the renewed Kantian universalism (J. Rawls), stressing that which is particular in individuals and transferring interests from ethos to the conditions of its realization, the conditions defined as rooted in community. Communitarianism opposes the individualistic image of man, stressing the need to be responsible for one's community. The latter is perceived as the main forming factor of the individual's identity. The author pays attention to the fact that we are dealing here with a radically heteronomous approach, which may be associated with Marxist anthropology.

Communitarianism inspires socio-political programmes, shifting from epistemological to normative relativism, but it does not solve the problem of the coexistence of cultures. It rejects formal egalitarianism of the state, calling for a policy for the sake of the development of small groups, thus transforming the liberal postulate of the neutrality of the state into the postulate of consequent neutrality. This leads to the demise of "the market of ideas" in social life.

Attempting to evaluate the proposals of ideological communitarianism, the author is positive toward such of their elements as criticism of individualism, reevaluate the social dimension of man's life, pragmatism and businesslike attitude. The author turns attention to the fact that the consistent antiuniversalism of communitarianism and the negation of the nature of man which is involved in it, upset the balance between person and community. Normatively-oriented relativism also weighs on the ideology of communitarianism, and the communitarian programme of consistent neutrality seems to be in discord with the principle of auxiliarity proclaimed by the Church. All these make the author to formulate the conclusion that communitarianism is the modern-day temptation to create a new utopia.