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Pluralism: Pluralism is the view that society is composed of a variety of competing groups and interests, and that no single group or ideology should have dominant influence. Pluralists believe that diversity is a strength, and that it leads to better decision-making and social outcomes. See also Society, Community.
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Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments.

 
Author Concept Summary/Quotes Sources

Fred D’Agostino on Pluralism - Dictionary of Arguments

Pluralism/Diversity/D’Agostino: Diversity, (...) is a familiar phenomenon, of some potential relevance to political theory and practice. Pluralism, on the other hand, is embodied in theses and arguments about this phenomenon. >Diversity/D’Agostino.
A. Weak Pluralism.
At the most general level, pluralism is simply the proposition that the fact of diversity must be acknowledged as of fundamental ethico-political significance, or more pointedly, as George Crowder put it, that 'such diversity is desirable' (1994(1): 293). In particular, it cannot be assumed, according to pluralism, that diversity is legitimately eliminable in all cases — that it always, for instance, reflects corrigible epistemic or motivational deficiencies. If diversity of assessments creates difficulties for individual or collective choice, then, in at least some cases, according to pluralism, these difficulties have to be addressed on terms which recognize the significance of the diversity which engenders them.
VsMonism: Pluralism, in this sense, stands in opposition to evaluative monism, which holds, on the contrary, that difficulties for choosing posed by prima facie diversity of evaluations are to be addressed, precisely, by the elimination of diversity. >Pluralism/Political Philosophy, >Incommensurability/Political Philosophy, >Pluralism/Rawls.
Gaus I 241
B. Strong Pluralism.
Berlin: We might believe, instead, and as Isaiah Berlin influentially claimed, that diversity in valuations is a reflection, empirically, of a deep and objective fact about values per se, and not about the limitations, however profound, of human reasoning about them. We might hold, as John Gray put it, that such values are many, (that) they often come into conflict with one another and are uncombinable in a single human being or a single society, and that in many of such conflicts there is no overarching standard whereby the competing claims of such ultimate values are rationally arbitratable. (1993(2): 65)
D’Agostino: Here, monism is rejected not on 'practical' grounds, as in Rawls's weak version of pluralism, but rather on the basis, precisely, of 'disputed philosophical theses' (...). >Pluralism/Berlin, >Pluralism/Rawls.


1. Crowder, George (1994) 'Pluralism and liberalism'. Political Studies, 42: 293-305.
2. Gray, John (1993) Post-Liberalism. New York: Routledge.

D’Agostino, Fred 2004. „Pluralism and Liberalism“. In: Gaus, Gerald F. & Kukathas, Chandran 2004. Handbook of Political Theory. SAGE Publications

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Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments
The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition.
D’Agostino, Fred
Gaus I
Gerald F. Gaus
Chandran Kukathas
Handbook of Political Theory London 2004


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