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The Implications of “Communitarian” Criticism with Respect to the Modern Social Order and the Viability of the Human Sciences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

David Lea
David Lea*
Affiliation:
Department of Political and Administrative Studies, University of Papua New Guinea
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Abstract

In the following paper I discuss a specific model of the human self which, allegedly, has been derived from the Enlightenment tradition. I discuss “communitarian” criticisms of this model which claim that it contains an untenable notion of unengaged, unattached subjectivity. In doing so I touch upon issues of individual rights and the loss of community which are the familiar preoccupations of the “communitarians”. I then indicate “communitarian” implications with respect to a reinterpretation of the moral order and the approach of the human sciences like psychology. Ultimately, I ask whether the supposed truth of “communitarian” analysis renders certain dominant forms of Western psychology irrelevant in the context of both customary Papua New Guinean society and Modern Western society.

Type
Articles
Information
South Pacific Journal of Psychology , Volume 8 , 1995 , pp. 26 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © University of Papua New Guinea & the University of Newcastle, Australia 1995

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