Amitai Etzioni LIBERALS AND COMMUNITARIANS

1. Toward the I k We Cotnttiunitariaiis cliarge contemporary liberal philosophers (CLP) with an excessive focus on individual rights and with neglect of obligations to the coninitiiiity, to shared virtues and common purposes. While CLP evince a ineasure of cominitnient to a hroderate vision of community, they contend that communitarians provide an insutfcient basis for individual rights. Cointtiunitaliajis, in turn, indiredy acknowledge the need to ensure these rights in order to avoid collectivism. Out of these charges and countercharges, a synthesis begins to suggest itself. Lpss Itldiitiduolism. Iri A ?+hto?y of Juslice, John Kawls founded a coilception ofjustice on respect for the individual. Individual persons and their selfthosen ends are primary, the common good or general welfare, subordinate: