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The advanced industrial or post-industrial societies seem to have come to a paradoxical predicament. The individualist culture which has favored the modernization process so much, now constitutes one of the most formidable obstacles to the further modernization of societies. Contemporary society seems unable to move toward solving the problems of global interdependence, of environmental risk and of its own internal complexity unless it finds a way of re-creating from within itself some aspects of the life of the community. However, in reappropriating the relevant features of community - especially the concern for the common good - we can't avoid falling back on that normative standard of self-realization, fulfillment or authenticity which in a sense represents the epitome of modern individualism and is often mistaken, by the communitarian critics of liberalism, for a mere garden variety of early-modern atomistic individualism.

A formulation of a postmetaphysical notion of the "good" takes the Aristotelian notion of the good for a human life & deontologizes it. This postmodern reading parallels Jurgen Habermas's reworking of Immanuel Kant. A link is proposed between the universality of singular judgments about integrity & realization of an identity with dimensions of an identity's well-being, & its cross-cultural relevance. The definition of eudaimonia is expressed in psychological vocabulary, citing Sigmund Freud & Melanie Klein's prerequisites for the development of a fulfilled identity. Dimensions of coherence, vitality, depth, & maturity must be included in such an identity. The fulfillment of collective identities builds on an extended version of the individual case. The applicability of these four dimensions is then tested on the model of fulfilled collective identities, noting reflections on the subject by Emile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, & Max Weber. A reconstruction of the postmodern eudaimonia will help to correct the marginal status of the good in modern ethical theory. This reconstruction establishes the middle ground between all forms of deontological ethics & notions of the good based on authenticity or being oneself. 56 References. J. Sadler

Following R. Bernstein (Beyond Objectivism and Relativism: Science, Hermeneutics, and Praxis, Oxford: Blackwell, 1983), the current intellectual climate is characterized as a confrontation between the objectivist attempt to identify an invariant basis for all judgments of validity & a new relativism that takes the form of an anthropologically & sociologically informed contextualism. Would-be mediators between the two warring factions include Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jurgen Habermas, & Hannah Arendt. Here it is argued that the notion of phronesis, usually thought to belong in the skeptical camp, bears no necessary relation to relativism, but constitutes, on the one hand, a useful corrective against the formalism inherent in Habermas's attempt to steer a procedural course between objectivism & relativism, &, on the other hand, provides a good basis for addressing the unsolved problem that haunts a large part of contemporary thought -- the issue of value judgment. Some reasons for the increasing attention that phronesis & related concepts (wisdom, prudence, judgment) have recently received are noted, & some perplexities generated by the use of the concept of phronesis addressed. A characterization of phronesis is offered based partially on a reading of Immanuel Kant & Aristotle. Also briefly touched on are the psychological conditions of the development of phronesis & the question of validity in prudential judgment. AA

Various works of Jurgen Habermas are examined in an attempt to present a more fully developed version of his views on ethics than was previously available, allowing a more comprehensive assessment of these views. Habermas seeks to refute seven versions of moral skepticism through the development of a Diskursethik (discourse ethic). His argument has several strong points, which can generally be interpreted as parts of an attempt to preserve a Kantian approach to ethics while taking into account a Hegelian critique of that approach. However, it also has significant weaknesses. Its strengths & weaknesses are assessed through analysis of a hypothetical representative case of practical moral conflict. Habermas's ethic, like Kant's, is flawed by an excessive formalism that ignores the real conditions under which ethical problems are encountered. An attempt is made to outline a nonformalistic Diskursethik as an alternative. W. H. Stoddard

"Legitimation by constitution" is a phrase coined by Michelman and Ferrara to represent an idea in Rawlsian political liberalism of reliance on a dualist democracy: ground-level laws are subject to the constraints of a legal constitution that all citizens, across the political spectrum, can accept as a framework for their collective politics.