Community and Conflict

"It is widely supposed among political philosophers and practitioners that moral conflict is destructive of political community. This book argues that, on the contrary, conflict is necessary for political community. Modern democratic societies display a degree of solidarity amid diversity for which the current theoretical approach cannot account. This book develops a new philosophical basis for political association at the heart of which lies a novel appeal to the way in which journey narratives in literature can serve to shed light on the possibilities for solidarity in modernity. This book will be welcomed for its extended development of an innovative way of thinking about community, a concept that is widely recognized as being of the utmost political importance, but which has received only limited attention in the theoretical literature."--Jacket.