Pluralism
Description
Glen Weyl:
"I understand pluralism to be a social philosophy that recognizes and fosters the flourishing of and cooperation between a diversity of sociocultural groups/systems.
I see two sides to pluralism, institutional and epistemic.
- Institutional pluralism is a contrast with a broad range of social philosophies that might be described as “monist” (I ironically called these ALONE or Atomized Liberalism and Objectivist Naïve Epistemology in a related piece). Monist philosophies tend to focus either on isolated individuals and/or on a unitary/universal structure in which these individuals reside. The atomistic ideology predicated on the isolated individual is often used to justify capitalism, because it emphasizes groups as much as individuals. However, for institutional pluralism, groups are not mere vehicles for individual interests but are of fundamental interest. Meanwhile, the centralistic ideology predicated on a unitary or universal structure is often used to justify populist statism and nationalism. In contrast, institutional pluralism denies the centrality of any one group/collective, such as the nation state, global humanity, etc.
- Epistemic pluralism is a contrast to traditions that seek out unitary, commensurable ways of knowing (most prominently technocracy). It does so by denying that any single rational logic or meritocratic scheme can select for optimal social ordering. Instead, it emphasizes the importance of a diverse range of incommensurable collective entities and cultures of knowledge that intersect and collaborate."
(https://www.radicalxchange.org/media/blog/why-i-am-a-pluralist/)
Characteristics
Glen Weyl:
"The first is what might be called “dynamism” or “liberalism”, namely that I view evolution of the set of social groups as critical to the success of pluralism. This contrasts with conservative and much religious and consociational thought, where the plurality of groups constituting society is often seen as static.
The second is “self-government” or “democracy”, namely that I think it is crucial for the pluralistic groups to be accountable to the individuals who make them up, without putting those individuals above the groups in fundamental significance. This contrasts with reactionary thought (such as fascism and corporatism), where groups usually have an authoritarian, personalistic and hierarchical structure.
The last is what might be called “cooperation”, namely that we should aim for cooperation and roughly coherence/consensus across social groups towards common goals, which contrasts with much postmodernism, relativism and nihilism."
(https://www.radicalxchange.org/media/blog/why-i-am-a-pluralist/)