Communitarianism: a theoretical approach and a case study

Abstract

In this paper, we turn our attention to the philosophical debate between Communitarians and Liberals. We choose the North American philosopher Michael J. Sandel (1953-) as the main voice amongst communitarians due to the fact that few thinkers openly associate themselves to this philosophical school. Many don’t even recognize its validity as a school. Sandel is an exception. Obviously, we have not reduced the communitarian debate to Sandel, yet his voice will reverberate louder throughout this article. Given the low propagation of the communitarian thesis, especially in the Brazilian debate, we choose to begin our work by tracing the historical and conceptual roots of the communitarian thinking, its main criticisms to liberalism, and its own frailties. In that consists the first part of our text. In the second part, we turn our gaze to the reality near to us, and so we analyze cases and dilemmas specific to the Pomeranian communities of the South region of the Rio Grande do Sul trying to address them through the communitarian optic. In the third part, we give voice to the liberal thinking, allowing it not only to rebuke the communitarian critiques, but also to bring its solutions to the studied communities’ problems. Lastly, in part four, we bring our own final considerations on the arguments exposed, as well as our perceptions on the “Communitarianism vs Liberalism” debate. On that topic, we expose our view that, despite communitarianism being well succeeded in raising valid criticisms to liberalism, it fails in presenting solutions (at least, alluring and definitive solutions) to those problems, it also fails in raising criticisms that could not be (at least, theoretically) dealt with within the liberal thinking itself.

Keywords: Communitarianism. Liberalism. Community. Pomeranians. Politics.