Multi-valued Equilibrium:the Study Of Walzer’s Political Philosophy

The main problem which contemporary political philosophers focus on is how to find a way to discuss the integrity and diversity of the shared meanings, meanwhile we can insist on basic human rights, equality, freedom, tolerance, pluralism and justice. This is also the substantive matter of liberal-communitarian debates. Machael Walzer says, the problem can be resolved though the shared meanings of social goods. The shared meanings mean the conceptions of the community and the moral conceptions including freedom, justice and so on. Those conceptions grow out and intrinsic to the historical development of a particular culture, and they don’t relate to the human condition, the natural law and the universal principle. Those shared meanings apply to the cultural world which they come from, however they perhaps don’t apply to the other cultural worlds. Walzer says, the particular cultural values aren’t secondary but fundamental to the people who express them.Michael Walzer, the American contemporary political philosopher, has extraordinary abilities to do research interdisciplinary, including sociology, philosophy, history, ethics and religious studies. He is not the kind of philosopher in the conventional sense. He doesn’t first put forward the abstract patterns of justice or the abstract ideas of the good life like the other political philosophers have done. However he first observes the various ways the people make the moral decisions, and then forms his own theories according to the historical and social realities. Walzer’s research field is also very special, and almost involves the all important areas of the contemporary political philosophy, including the puritan revolution, war ethics, distributive justice, complex equality, political tolerance, multiculturalism, civil society and so on. He thinks, the aim of political philosophers is to act as the social critics, to help the people to form the clearer conceptions about what we know, and to explain the shared meanings of the particular community. Walzer is also one of the most important American public intellectuals, and he has as editor of the Dissent magazine for more than fifty years. So to speak, Walzer is an theoretician and activist close to the Left, which has also influenced his thoughts. This thesis explains Walzer’s works in a historical approach. This method can locate Walzer in the specific historical situation, and can understand Wlzer’s whole thought clearly. Many scholars classify Walzer as communitarian in the tradition of analytic philosophy and consider his thought as relativism and conservatism. However classifying Walzer as communitarian is a misunderstanding. As a social democrat, Walzer pays closer attention to equal life experience not philosophical analysis; he thinks that the liberal justice theory fail to focus on real equality enough, and it is flawed in the field of sociology, history and anthropology. The core feature of his thoughts is a complex and interpretive thought-form, and seeks to break pure ideology, leaving spaces reserved for the multiple values.The main body of the thesis explains and researches Walzer’s important publicans, and presents his thoughts development, core topics and ideological characteristics. The time span is almost sixty years with four stages, and each stage is approximately fifteen years.In addition to the introduction, the first part of this thesis mainly involves his early ideas and experience. In this part, three kinds of traditional have influenced Walzer strongly. Walzer started forming some basic ideas. This chapter has briefly introduced the important thoughts and persons which influence Walzer, and discuss the main thought, especially discussing the Revolution of the Saints, Political actions and On Obligation. In this period, his core thought was the significance and importance of political actions. The methodology used in this period has influenced his whole academic career deeply, and he has also kept the basic ideas formed in this period.The second part mainly involves Walzer’s works in the1970s and the first half period of1980s. The thoughts of war ethics, justice and the complex equality began to appear with some works, including Just and Unjust Wars, the Spheres of Justice, Philosophy and Democracy, and Liberalism and the Art of Separation. Walzer began to become a famous political philosopher. Meanwhile this part places Walzer’s thoughts in the historical situation, and clarifies some misunderstandings. Walzer insists that political philosopher should aim to interpret our shared values, and justice should conform to the shared understandings of community. These viewpoints grow out of his participation in American radical democratic tradition and public debates. Walzer imposes himself as a social democrat. His conceptions of equality are more inclusive, and place more attention to the actual life experience. This part involves his pluralism, membership, complex equality, political participation, community and justice, and discusses the development and the form of his thoughts.The third part is about the consolidation and improvement of his thoughts, involving the main works from the latter half of1980s to2000, and especially focuses Interpretation and Social Criticism, the Company of Critics, and some important papers. In this period, Walzer paid attention to egalitarian liberalism and neo-conservatism, and provided a social democratic response. He admitted the Rawlsian egalitarian liberalism embodies historical progress, but it made little sense to promote the substantial equality. The egalitarian liberalism pays less attention to politics of difference like Marxism, and it misunderstands the essence of equality. His communitarian discusses in fact reflect his appeals to social democracy, and absorb some insights from radical democratic tradition. In this period, he paid more attention to civil society, multiculturalism and Jewish political tradition.The forth part mainly involves Walzer’s publications in the last ten years. His primary concern is Jewish political tradition and war ethics in this period. His personal interest and American counterterrorism seem promote this concern. In the last, this part further emphasizes, Walzer’s thoughts compromise the merits of different traditions and reflect his commitment to social democracy. Comparing with Rawls, his thoughts always keep the commitment to social and political reality, and develop with social and political reality constantly. It is a reason why to research his thoughts historically. In addition, Walzer is also an important feature of American Left-wing political thought, which is a noteworthy aspect.The fifth part mainly explains four critics to Walzer and relevant defenses and responses. His critics said that his thoughts were relativism and conservative. This part defenses for Walzer through incommensurability, incompatibility and minimal moral model. In addition, this part interprets Walzer in a contextual and historical way, and point out the criticalness existing in his thoughts. The last part is brief summary and evaluation of Walzer’s thoughts. This thesis does some research about his political philosophy in a history way, comparing with simple philosophical analysis, this way can make better sense of him and his whole thought logic. As the editor of Dissent magazine, Walzer is an activist for civic right and enters into various political activities. These activities make him develop unique conceptions of equality other than Dworkin Cohen and Rawls. Walzer’s early thought was affected by three kinds of tradition primarily, and tried to reconcile conflicting ideas in these traditions. As his thoughts developed, he has developed his own research theme under these traditions. It has also exceeded these traditions to some extent. It is not proper to consider Walzer as a communitarian. It is not only treat Walzer’s own description but also underestimates his efforts to reconcile socialism, liberalism, communitarianism and even conservatism. This is an important feature of his thoughts. For Walzer, what political philosophy should pursue is not pure ideology. It should absorb and utilize any useful ideological arguments, and avoid bias between ideological factions. The greatest contribution of Wazler to political philosophy is to open up the new approach of political philosophy research. This approach is different apparently from the mainstream approach of political philosophy research, which also makes his thoughts unique. As he himself has always emphasized, Walzer is both a theoretician and an activist; both a scholar and a public intellectual; both a political philosopher and a political actor for social democracy. As a public intellectual, he has worked for public magazine for all life time. He has connected political philosophy with political participation; He has also ascended pure academic research and addressed issues in the daily political life directly in a reflective and responsible way. America even the whole academic circle will benefit from him for long.