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Social Beings We are all products of particular societies. We do not "make ourselves". We owe much of what we consider to be our "identity" and "personal opinions" to the community in which we live. This made perfect sense to Aristotle. For Aristotle, the primary function of the state was to enable collectivist human beings to have philosophical discussions and eventually agree on a shared code of ethics. MAN IS BY NATugt:: A POLITIC.AL ANIMAL. Ii IS IN HIS NAIUIZE To LJVE IN A STATE. But as soon as we are formed, most of us start to question the society that has made us. and do so in a way that seems unique to us. Socrates stressed that it was in fact our duty. A~ QUEs1iOlllS Agcur ACCEPTED MO~PJ- OPINWN5, ANP HEV~ SiOP DOING So. The State may decide what is legally right and wrong, but the law and morality are not the same thing . 4
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Communitarians or Individualists? Ethics is complicated because our morality is an odd mixture of received tradition and personal opinion. SOME. PHIL.060PHEgs HAVE 511ZESSED '"llCE IMP0'21ANCE OF !HE C()MMUNtf'tf AND SEE /NDtVIDOAL ~WICS AS DEIZIVATIV~. OTHEfZS Wll-L SllZESS. lHE IMPO~NCE OF THE AUToNO~ous IHl>IVIDCJAL AND aAIM THAT Soaerv 15 /V\EIZEL.. '(A CON'/BJIE.NT A£f2ANGEMENT WHICH MUST gE sugsa?'llEN'f TO "fHE GoALS AND AMg11t0NS Ot INDIVlDUAL..'5. Both individualist and communitarian philosophers are reluctant to explain away ethics as no more than "club rules" agreed upon and formalized by members. Both want to legitimize either communal ethics or the need for an individual morality by appealing to some kind of "neutral" set of ideals. Much of this book is about these different attempts to provide a foundation for ethics. 5

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Communitarians or Individualists?

Ethics is complicated because our morality is an odd mixture of received tradition and personal opinion.

SOME. PHIL.060PHEgs HAVE 511ZESSED '"llCE IMP0'21ANCE OF !HE C()MMUNtf'tf AND SEE /NDtVIDOAL ~WICS AS

DEIZIVATIV~.

OTHEfZS Wll-L SllZESS. lHE IMPO~NCE OF THE AUToNO~ous IHl>IVIDCJAL AND aAIM THAT Soaerv 15 /V\EIZEL.. '(A CON'/BJIE.NT A£f2ANGEMENT WHICH MUST gE sugsa?'llEN'f TO "fHE GoALS AND AMg11t0NS Ot INDIVlDUAL..'5.

Both individualist and communitarian philosophers are reluctant to explain away ethics as no more than "club rules" agreed upon and formalized by members. Both want to legitimize either communal ethics or the need for an individual morality by appealing to some kind of "neutral" set of ideals. Much of this book is about these different attempts to provide a foundation for ethics.

5

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