Development of the Self-Concept

Abstract

The contextualistic self-concept inherent in communitarianism and the individualistic self-concept of liberalism are usually deemed incompatible. One crucial point of difference is that communitarians consider standards of rationality as essentially tradition-dependent, whereas liberals think they can be tradition-transcendent. Ultimately, the liberal self can autonomously choose a conception of the good life; the communitarian self cannot. Jack Crittenden has argued that these irreconcilable self-concepts may nevertheless be integrated when interpreted as two stages in the development of the person. In this chapter we discuss the conditions on which such a ‘vertical’ or developmental integration is possible. It involves the acceptance of an amended liberal concept of the person, but we show that it can do justice to almost all of the communitarian views as well. We argue that the communitarian view, though true for most people most of their life time, cannot be maintained all along the line. The resulting integrative conception of the person is more realistic and preferable to both original views.