The Justification Of Perfectionist Liberalism Through Value Pluralism

In recent years, people have been accustomed to a pluralistic life, as an important assumption in contemporary society is pluralism.The value pluralism raisedby Berlin in the1980s had a profound impact on the direction of Western political thought.The key point of the value pluralism is advocating good in humansociety is diverse,and these goods is incommensurable and conflicting sometimes.The rise of value pluralism inevitably attracts the attention of other theories,and liberalism as today’s mainstream thought will inevitably occurs contact with valuepluralism. In the relationship between liberalism and value pluralism, some scholars, such as Gray believe they are nature inconsistent,while some scholars believe that the two are compatible——liberalism can be justified by value pluralism.In general,there are two ways to defend liberalism,one is universalism and particularism,and another is perfectionist and neutrality.These two approaches are combined with each other to produce four possibilities:universalism neutrality,universalism perfectionist,particularism neutrality and particularism perfectionist.The representatives of universalism neutrality are Rawls, Dworkin,Larmor and others;A typical representative of particularism neutrality is late Rawls;The representatives ofuniversalism perfectionist are Kant,Mill,Galston and others;Raz is a typical representative of particularism perfectionist.There are many political philosophers adoptuniversalism perfectionist to defend liberalism,but two main characters,Crowder and Galston,lay their justifications based on value pluralism.It can be said that Crowder and Galston in defense of liberalism have a lot in common.,on the one hand they have adopted the universal way,on the other hand they both use perfectionist,and finally they adopt the path of value pluralism.So we select these twocharacters to explore the relationship between value pluralism and perfectionist liberalism. The basic characteristics in society of value pluralism are people holding different good ideas,and these good ideas are incommensurable,and often conflict.How to solve this conflict,there are two opposing points of view,the first one is perfectionist,that is,to select a good between conflicting goods and this good must overwhelm all other good.The second is neutrality,that is,to remain neutral ina variety of good ideas neither bias a particular good nor overwhelm certain good.The perfectionist view is the mainstream of Western thought untill recently,andit is a orthodox view of national discourse in the long history.However,the point of perfectionist are challenged in modern times,and one of the most importantcriticism is from neutrality.While the second point of view is mainstream in thecurrent,but we should also pay attention to perfectionist,because the best way todefine a concept is from its rival,when perfectionist and neutrality happens to be two opposing concepts.The first chapter distinguish pluralism and value pluralism,and value pluralism is on the basis of pluralism but adds many unique understanding of value.There are four elements of value pluralism,follows Berlin,that is,universality,plurality,incommensurability and conflict.Some values are universal and these values arevaluable to everyone in all cultures and any time.But not all values are universal,only highly general values are universal;The value of human should be varied,because the prosperity of mankind requires many different goods instead of just one or a few;Diverse values can not be measured,and there is not a standard canmeasure all other values.These diverse and incommensurable values in certain circumstances may be conflicting,and achieve one value must at the expense of other value for the price.The second chapter explains how Crowder justify perfectionist liberalism through value pluralism. Crowder explains inherent harmony between value pluralism and liberalism from diversity,reasonable disagreement and virtue.Value diversitycan defend liberalism,and the diversity factor of value pluralism is conducive tothe realization of a variety of value.Liberalism are better accommodate diversitythan illiberal forms;If value pluralism is correct,we must admit reasonable disagreement of good life,thereforce,countries should reconcile these disagreements,rather than to destroy them.The best political form in solving disagreements is liberalism;Pluralism has four virtues:generosity,realism,attentiveness and flexibility,while the virtues of liberalism is consistent with pluralism,which include broad-mindedness,temperance,concerned about value and personal discipline.The third chapter explains how Galston justifies perfectionist liberalism through value pluralism.Galston distinguished formal justification and substantive justification,and he advocated substantive justification is in preference to formal justification,while substantive is just the perfectionist justification.Galston presents liberalpluralism on the basis of value pluralism.There are three theoretical basises forliberal pluralism:expressive liberty,value pluralism and political pluralism.Galston justifies liberal pluralism from value pluralism through these three bases.He advocates his own theory as a comprehensive theory,and Nussbaum believes that most forms of comprehensive liberalism are perfectionist.Although the relationship between value pluralism and liberalism arouses a lot of controversy,many people think that value pluralism can not support the justification of liberalism,and they are inherent inconsistent.But there are still many scholars believe that value pluralism are consistent with liberalism.Chapter II andIII proved that the combination of liberalism and pluralism is desirable,and the final chapter attempts to explain this combination is feasible, because it not onlybe compatible with the current democratic society, but also promoting the virtues of citizens.