Are the communitarians right in their criticism of the liberal conception of a person?
In this essay I shall examine the question of whether an individual’s development as a person is inextricably bound up in their society or, as the liberal conception supposedly claims, a person’s development is wholly independent of the community. I shall first examine the conception itself, and attempt to ascertain if it is vulnerable to the communitarians’ criticisms. I shall then consider whether it is a conception that any typical liberals actually maintain. Finally I shall consider whether anything actually turns on the answer to these questions. I shall conclude that while the conception is not immune to criticism, it is not one that liberals actually tend to hold, and that nothing crucial in liberalism is affected either way. The liberal conception of a person – according to communitarians – is that their development as persons is in a sense prior to the community to which they are born. A person is born, grows and matures, and once they become a fully developed reasoning adult
