Community and Communitarianism

Community and Communitarianism presents--and defends in detail--a care-centered ideal of a good and moral community: a form of social organization imbued with the virtues of a care-centered ethic, such as cooperation (in "teleological communities," cooperation in the realization of communal goals); mutual concern and solidarity; sympathy and empathy; benevolence; a spirit of sacrifice; and affection, love, and caring. It is argued that a care-centered ethic, hence a care-centered community, needs to be constrained and fortified by equal respect for the participants' basic human right to be treated as moral subjects, together with fair and just treatment. Besides contributing to social philosophy, the book contributes significantly to ethics.