Liberalism and the challenge of pluralism

Richard Bellamy

pp. 153-170

in: Iain MacKenzie, Shane O'Neill (eds), Reconstituting social criticism, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1999

Abstract

Pluralism permeates modern societies. Their growing differentiation and complexity both highlights and partially generates the plurality of morals, underlining the latent tensions between the various ethical codes and commitments associated with the different spheres of people's lives. Obligations to work, family, friends and strangers frequently pull in opposed directions, as do the claims of ethnicity, religion, ideology and locality. We experience such clashes both within ourselves and in our everyday dealings with other people and institutions whose outlook and attachments differ from our own.