AUTONOMY, SOCIAL IDENTITIES, AND ALIENATION

Abstract

“Community” and autonomy are both considered to be positive values; the problem is that they conflict. A communitarian theory of alienation and dealienation seeks to make societal adjustments that are suggested by a particular theory of human nature, namely one according to which humans are innately social and require social identities in order to flourish. The remedies are likely to be socially (although not necessarily politically) conservative, with some analogies to the social conservatism of traditional (tribal) societies. On this theory the causes of alienation are what causes a lack of any sense of what one is, or a sense of social exclusion, or the absence of a sense of possession toward one's community or work place.