Liberalism and Value Pluralism

Value pluralism is the view that fundamental human goods, such as liberty, equality and justice, are irreducibly plural and incommensurable. Where such goods conflict, we must make hard choices betweem them, unguided by determinate hierarchies of value such as those proposed by the utilitarians and by Kant. In this book, George Crowder looks at the implications of value pluralism for political theory and in particular for the foundations of liberalism. He argues that while pluralism presents a serious challenge to some of the standard approaches to political theory, it is nontheless compatible with a substantial range of argumants grounded in context. The second focus of the book concerns the arguments put forward by Isaiah Berlin and others showing how pluralism might give us a reason to accept liberalism. Crowder offers an extended attempt to argue for liberalism from a pluralist point of view. He goes on to make a case for liberalism in its more egalitarian and multicultural version, as the political form most hospitable to a mulitplicity of values.

Author Biography

George Crowder has taught political philosophy in Britain, the United States, Eastern Europe, and Australasia, and is currently Senior Lecturer in Political Theory at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.