ABSTRACT
As both a fact of complex modern society and a normative principle of democratic communication, pluralism is often framed as a paradox: mysterious, self-contradictory or potentially self defeating. Does the paradox of pluralism undermine its normative potential? The essay proceeds from an empirical look at the paradox of pluralism as it appears in practical discourses of faith, politics and institutions, to a theoretical exploration of pluralism in philosophy and communication theory. Arguing that paradox is a framing problem, I deploy pluralistic communication theory to reframe the paradox of pluralism as a practical communication problem. I distinguish four theoretical ideals of pluralistic communication and explore the dialectic tensions among them for their heuristic potential to inform pluralistic praxis.
