The Possibility of Politics: The Shape of Political Philosophy Given the Reality of Pluralism

This thesis sets out to make sense of what it calls the reality of pluralism – the idea that the fundamental state between two people is some form of debate or disagreement rather than agreement. To do so it uses three very different thinkers who coalesce around the idea of pluralism despite their disparate political philosophies – Hannah Arendt, Alasdair MacIntyre and John Gray. All of the thinkers address the issue of pluralism in some way, regardless of how positively they view it. This then leads to three different types of pluralism – a positive form of pluralism in the form of Arendt’s “action”, a much more negative form of pluralism in what MacIntyre calls emotivism, and the denial of pluralism that manifests itself in the form of totalitarianism. It also attempts to address the challenges that any politics based on pluralism almost has to face if it is to be a viable political status. Finally it address the question of whether there can be a politics based on the reality of pluralism by introducing a basic requirement for all those who might enter into pluralistic debate – a form of mutual respect based on accepting the other person in any discussion or argument has a right to their opinion, no matter how far that opinion, belief or general worldview might be from one’s own.