Preliminary Proceedings of the 62th International Academic Conference, Vienna

THE LIBERTARIAN OR COMMUNITARIAN COMMUNITY? ATTEMPTING TO RESOLVE THE DEBATE USING ACTOR-NETWORK THEORY (ANT)

RAFAŁ WĄŻ

Abstract:

The comparison between a libertarian community and a communitarian one is presented. This comparison is different from the standard contrast between liberal and communitarian communities. This departure arises from the broad nature of liberalism, posing a challenge in providing a concise definition within this brief presentation. The perception of community may vary among liberals, with some aligning more with libertarians and others with communitarians (Szahaj 2000). Obviously, libertarianism and communitarianism, as ideologies, are not entirely homogeneous. In this context, they are treated as Weberian ideal types (Weber 2011). Essentially, a community based on voluntary relations among free individuals is advocated by libertarianism (Hayek 1958; Rothbard 1992), while communitarianism, regardless of political leaning, presupposes individuals' embeddedness in a community, a larger entity chosen not entirely voluntarily. (Sandel 1982; Taylor 1994). In this presentation, a resolution to this debate is proposed through Actor-Network Theory (ANT), which posits an ontologically flat world comprising actors and their connections. As these connections are not immediately apparent, ANT suggests exploring relationships by tracing the actions of actors (Latour 1993; 2004; 2005). Both libertarianism and communitarianism diverge from this postulate, both of them a priori define a specific worldview and human subjectivity. References: - Hayek Fredrich, “Individualism and Economic Order”, The University of Chicago Press, 1958. - Latour Bruno, “We have never been modern”, transl. Catherine Porter, Harvard University Press, 1993. - Latour Bruno, “Politics of Nature - How to bring the sciences into democracy”, transl. Catherine Porter, Harvard University Press, 2004. - Latour Bruno, “Reassembling the Social” – An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory”, Oxford University Press, 2005. - Rothbard Murray, “How and How Not to Desocialize”, The Review of Austrian Economics 6:1 (1992). - Sandel Michael, “Liberalism and the Limits of Justice”, Cambridge University Press, 1982. - Szahaj Andrzej, “Jednostka czy wspólnota? Spór liberałów z komunitarystami a ‘sprawa polska’”, Fundacja ALETHEIA, 2000. - Taylor Charles, “Sources of the Self. The making of Modern Identity”, Harvard University Press, 1994. - Weber Max, “Methodology of Social Sciences” transl. Edward A. Shils, Henry A. Finch, Transaction Publishers, 2011.

Keywords: social philosophy; philosophy of culture; political theory; community; libertarianism; communitarianism; ANT

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