Communitarianism as a New Criticism of Liberalism

Reflections on the nature and importance of community have played a great role in the philosophy of ethics and political philosophy of the west. The conservatives and socialists believe that innate relationships, as the bases of community’s permanence, give more important role to community than the worries and interests of each individual. However, the liberals base community on the assemblies of individuals, who are selected freely and have common needs, and the freely selected communities and individual needs. “Communitariansim” is one of the most important approaches in philosophy and social sciences, which emerged after postmodernism, and its attitudes, especially towards ethics and justice, which are among the key concepts of philosophy and modern social sciences, are of great importance to the philosophy and social sciences of the west. Communitarianism can be defined as supporting the social order in which individuals depend on each other, based on their common values. While communitarianists emphasize the interaction between the framework of community and elf-consciousness of individuals, liberalists apparently study a single individual who is detached from its social environment artificially and inharmoniously. This article analyzes communitarinasm as a new criticism of liberalism.