ABSTRACT
Contemporary communitarians formulate their views in opposition to the individualistic theory of liberalism, and they target in particular the Kantian liberalism of Rawls. This chapter shows the liberal conception of the naturally autonomous self with the communitarian account of the socially embedded self, as defended by Bradley and Taylor in different ways. It also shows that both the liberal picture of a society as a collection of autonomous individuals and the communitarian notion of a society as based on shared values are problematic. The chapter argues that both the liberal and the conservative communitarian positions are inadequate and one-sided in so far as they treat autonomy and community as antagonistic and universal values. This reveals their lack of a historical understanding of freedom. The chapter explores the concrete historical basis on which the value of autonomy emerged in parallel with the new social institutions and social relations through which people have become relatively autonomous.
