Re: [Marxism] Michael Walzer

["Calvin Broadbent" <calvinbroadbent@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

Thanks for the help Michael, but I don't really understand a word of this.
Does Walzer suggest that different 'communities' ought to be accorded
different 'goods' on the basis of their designated membership of that
community? Does that ministration extend to material goods (the right to
community healthcare, education, decent employment, and so on)? Or is Walzer
more concerned wth formal political 'rights and obligations', and 'cultural'
recognition, neatly bypassing the entire structure of class exploitation and
racial oppression?

It seems also that whilst Walzer would be more than willing to assent to
some kind of special recognition of the black 'community', his allegiance to
American Nationalism (and America as a more or less ideal model of the
pluralistic society) would ensure his absolute aversion to black nationalism
in the US.

Frankly, modern mainstream political philosophy is all tedious word games to
me.


> > > calvinbroadbent@xxxxxxxxxxx 10/28/05 6:31 AM >>>
Can anyone possibly give the lowdown on American philosopher Michael Walzer.
<<<<<>>>>>

present-day walzer is identified with communitarianism, he has worked at
synthesizing community & pluralist-liberal thinking, he opposes idea of
'universal theory of justice', arguing, instead for principle that he calls
'complex equality' in which separate rules should apply to distribution of
different social goods, thus, development of 'sphere of justice' (title of,
perhaps, his best known work), in sum: different principles of justice
may be appropriate in different areas of life...

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