Search engine for discovering works of Art, research articles, and books related to Art and Culture
Javascript must be enabled to continue!
The Individualist Egalitarianism of William James
View through CrossRef
This chapter introduces and defends the democratic individualism in William James’s thought. Drawing on the work of George Kateb and others, it shows that what James calls the “democratic respect for the sacredness of individuality” can be understood in terms of four interrelated commitments: (1) A commitment to the principle that each person’s individuality counts equally; no one’s more or less than anyone else’s. (2) A commitment to the principle that each individual should be able to flourish, on his or her own terms, and therefore, to a set of social conditions that enable such flourishing. (3) A commitment to examine oneself for moral blind spots: for ways in which one might be oblivious to, and complicit in, the frustration of others’ individuality. (4) A commitment to “strenuously” revise one’s habits and behavior in light of the previous three commitments.
Title: The Individualist Egalitarianism of William James
Description:
This chapter introduces and defends the democratic individualism in William James’s thought.
Drawing on the work of George Kateb and others, it shows that what James calls the “democratic respect for the sacredness of individuality” can be understood in terms of four interrelated commitments: (1) A commitment to the principle that each person’s individuality counts equally; no one’s more or less than anyone else’s.
(2) A commitment to the principle that each individual should be able to flourish, on his or her own terms, and therefore, to a set of social conditions that enable such flourishing.
(3) A commitment to examine oneself for moral blind spots: for ways in which one might be oblivious to, and complicit in, the frustration of others’ individuality.
(4) A commitment to “strenuously” revise one’s habits and behavior in light of the previous three commitments.
Related Results
Dworkin and Luck Egalitarianism
Dworkin and Luck Egalitarianism
Ronald Dworkin is a founding father of what has come to be called “luck egalitarianism,” a family of distributive justice doctrines that hold that the inequalities in people’s cond...
Vertical Egalitarianism
Vertical Egalitarianism
This chapter examines liberalism (classical and contemporary) as a paradigm of “vertical” egalitarianism. It shows how, from a liberal perspective, the distinction between vertical...
Understanding James, Understanding Modernism
Understanding James, Understanding Modernism
Psychologist, philosopher, teacher, writer–William James stood closer than any other thinker to the center of the confluence of intellectual and artistic forces that defined the cu...
Introduction
Introduction
With passage of the Social Security Act, in 1935, the American government took on new social welfare functions, which have expanded ever since. The Transformation of American Liber...
The Second Generation
The Second Generation
The ideal of democratic socialist egalitarianism was put into practice by the kibbutz. These authors see it as the perfect laboratory for research on egalitarianism. Seeking an ans...
Toward a Pragmatist Egalitarianism
Toward a Pragmatist Egalitarianism
This chapter outlines some of American pragmatism’s central doctrines (its “problem-centric” slant, its experimentalism, its antiessentialism and its impetus for mediation and reco...
Consciousness Is Motor
Consciousness Is Motor
Abstract
We remember William James for his colorful descriptions of subjective experience, perhaps above all. But in Consciousness Is Motor, Alexander Klein shows th...