Engelhardt's communitarian ethics
the hidden assumptions
pp. 77-93
in: Reading Engelhardt, Berlin, Springer, 1997Abstract
Few people would characterize H. Tristram Engelhardt"s thought as "communitarian." For many in bioethics Engelhardt is widely regarded as a committed libertarian and secular humanist. This is not the case. This essay will argue that Engelhardt is not a libertarian by choice but by default. His libertarian conclusions can only be understood in light of his arguments about the failure of the modern philosophical enterprise in ethics and the implications of the postmodern dilemma. I think if one understands that the heart of his work is an assessment of the modern philosophical project in ethics then one can (1) bring together his libertarian views about the moral limits of the secular state with (2) his communitarian views of morality. The two conclusions flow from his argument about postmodernity.
