III. Liberals, Communitarians, and the Tasks of Political Theory
Abstract
LIBERALISM AND PHILOSOPHY 111. LIBERALS, COMMUNITARIANS, AND THE TASKS OF POLITICAL THEORY JOHN R. WALLACH Vassar College T HE ACADEMIC DEBATE BETWEEN liberals and communi- tarians, that is, between contemporary liberal theorists such as John Rawls and Ronald Dworkin, and their communitarian critics, such as Richard Rorty, Alasdair Maclntyre, and Michael Sandel, has reached a point where it may be fruitfully evaluated as a whole.' Rawls's recent, important article, which defined the political dimensions of his theory of justice and responded to many of his critics, and Amy Gutmann's analytical assessment of each side's claims, have clarified the overt terms of the debate.2 At the same time, these articles and other elaborations by the debate's partisans have emphasized how liberal and communitarian conceptions of what political theory is and ought to be affect the substantive claims of the theories.3 At issue, in addition to the meaning of rights and equality, constitutiveness and community, are differing conceptions of the tasks of political theory. The debate may be put as follows. John Rawls's theory of "justice as fairness" seeks to establish a philosophical method that will help adjudicate moral and political conflict in contemporary, Western, advanced, industrial societies; preserve individual