Individual Rights, the Common Good and the Environment

Disputes the view of the communitarians, a recently emerged group of political theorists that individualism, especially the theory of natural individual rights, stands as an obstacle to desirable community life for human beings. Argues that the only objection of individualism to communitarianism rests on the communitarian endorsement of coercion and violation of individual rights; in point of fact, individualism,with a proper understanding of human nature, supports community life that is voluntarily chosen; such communities have greater solidarity than those established by coercion. Uses the topic of environmentalism,which might offer strong support for coercive communitarianism, to illustrate how an individualist analysis gives strong support to the values of community life; indeed, stronger support than communitarianism because individual rights are very powerful legal trumps on such environmentally destructive acts as dumping, rationing, and otherwise merely blunting the injuries of pollution.