ABSTRACT
The communitarian principle says that the good of society as a whole presumptively has higher priority than the interests of the individual. Analyzing and evaluating it will require a fairly lengthy discussion and warrants a chapter by itself. We will come to the harshest possible criticism—and it is very harsh—from our present evaluative standpoint. That the principle weathers this objection without great difficulty will cement a good prima facie justification for the liberal society, and show a robustness in liberalism not even hinted at by the failure of the standard conservative arguments.
