ABSTRACT
Since the early 1980s, sparked in part by the publication of Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue (1985) and Michael Sanders critique of Rawls, in Liberalism and the Limits of J ustice (1988), the so-called communitarian vs liberal debate has been astapie of political and sodal philosophy. I suppose this confrontation is partly driven by the dynamics of pedagogy and by the seductive appeal of polemical confrontations. Nevertheless, something important is going on. At stake is the creation of a public philosophy that can meet the demands of our time. We may hope it will be enriched by dialogue and chastened by self-criticism.
