The Moral Commonwealth

by Philip Selznick

Philip Selznick's study of moral and social theory establishes the intellectual foundations of an important new movement in American thought: communitarianism. Emerging in part as a response to the excesses of American individualism - particularly rampant during the 1980s - communitarianism seeks to restore the balance between individual rights and social responsibilities. The Moral Commonwealth attempts to explain and justify this communitarian turn and give it a liberal interpretation.

Philip Selznick is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of California at Berkeley.

Preface
Acknowledgments

PART ONE MORALITY AND MODERNITY

1. Nature, Ethics, and the Modern Mind
Modernity and Modernisms
Naturalism in Ethics
Moral Well-being

2. Reason and Rationalism
Rationalism and Positivism
Five Pillars of Reason

3. Authenticity and Subjectivism
From Mind to Self
Subjectivity and Social Reality
Subjectivity and Subjectivism

4. Plurality and Relativism
Diversity and Convergence
The Idea of Humanity
Plurality and Objectivity

PART TWO THE MORAL PERSON

5. Human Nature Revisited
Sociology and Human Nature
Marx and Durkheim

6. Moral Development
Conscience and Competence
The Morality of Cooperation
Recalcitrance and Frailty

7. Virtue and Commitment
Segmental and Core Participation
The Primacy of the Particular
The Implicated Self

8. The Responsible Self
Self-preservation
Integrity and Personhood
Buddhist Self-regard
Conclusion

PART THREE THE MORAL INSTITUTION

9. Theory of Institutions
Organization~ Institution~Community
Rational Systems and Moral Agency
The Michels Effect
The Critique of Domination

10. Authority and Bureaucracy
Legitimacy: The Quality of Consent
The Moral Worth of Bureaucracy
Beyond Domination

11. Management and Governance
Speech and Community
Private Government
The Politics of Human Relations

12. Integrity and Responsibility
Ends, Means, and Integrity
Autonomy and Responsiveness
The Responsible Enterprise

PART FOUR THE MORAL COMMUNITY

13. In Search of Community
The Sociology of Community
Liberalism and Community

14. Civility and Piety
Critical and Conventional Morality
Ideology and Civility
Civility and Religion

15. Communitarian Justice
An Integrative Virtue
From Law to Justice
A Communitarian Legacy
Constitution and Community
Responsive Law

16. Covenant and Commonwealth
Moral and Social Equality
Communal Democracy
The Covenant of Reason

Name Index
Subject Index