Resurrecting the Pluralist Universe

Abstract

Pluralism has seen a major revival in the recent theoretical literature. After years of thorough critique, a purge of sorts, and, finally, relative obscurity, political and social theorists have begun to resurrect pluralist themes, even if they often do not acknowledge the term. The argument here is that much within this resurrection—conscious or unconscious— owes something to an articulation of pluralism that existed before the postwar, liberal variant that is so often seen as the whole of political plu ralism. Theorists such as William James and Mary Parker Follett initiated an examination of pluralist themes before being interrupted, and ignored, by the postwar generation. This essay focuses first on the contemporary resurrection of the epistemological foundation of pluralist thought, what James called "radical empiricism." It then goes on to examine two key issues, central to early pluralists, that have been revived and expanded upon by recent theorists: the tension in reconciling pluralist difference with political unity, and the difficulties in designing ethics and practices of communication across the diversity endemic to pluralism.