Pluralism has many principal meanings in the social sciences. Pluralism is a model of politics where power is assumed to be widely dispersed to different individuals and interest groups within a society. Pluralism describes a society where individual and group differences are present and are celebrated as enriching the social fabric. Pluralism is a view of the causation of social phenomena, especially of social change. The United States is an example of genuine cultural pluralism. Religious pluralism is not just a matter of law and norm, but is woven into the fabric of American civil society. Pluralism ensures that political processes will be relatively open and democratic and will reflect a spectrum of social interests rather than the domination of particular groups.
Moral pluralism is the idea that there are several values which may be equally correct and fundamental, and yet in conflict with each other. Max Weber in stressing the importance of cultural as well as material forces in creating change within a society offers a more pluralistic framework for explanation than the more exclusively materialist approach of Karl Marx.
Religious Pluralism Versus Social Cohesion? - Normative Fault Lines of Human Rights Jurisprudence in Europe - Daniel Augenstein, University of Edinburgh - School of Law. Abstract: This essay explores the tension between religious pluralism and social cohesion in European human rights jurisprudence. I argue that, at the national level, concerns for social cohesion stem from negative and defensive societal attitudes towards religious diversity that are difficult to reconcile with the normative premises of religious pluralism in a democratic society. I outline such a strategy of integration that re-interprets the relationship between religious pluralism and social cohesion in European human rights jurisprudence through challenging the association of social cohesion with the containment or suppression of religious diversity.
Law, Pluralism and the Family In Kenya: Beyond
Bifurcation of Formal Law and Custom -
Winifred Kamau.
Abstract: Family law in Africa has been is characterized by pluralism where customary,
religious and state laws co-exist within the same social context. The article argues that
the bifurcatory approach stems from an erroneous conceptualization of customary law,
manifested in a weak form of legal pluralism that does not give effect to people's
experience of the intersection of legal orders. In thinking about reform of family law in
the African context, there is need for an approach to legal pluralism that pays attention
to people's perception of their normative context.
PLURALISM IN LOGIC
- HARTRY FIELD.
Abstract: A number of people have proposed that we should be pluralists about logic, but
there are several things this can mean. Are there versions of logical pluralism that are
both high on the interest scale and also true? After discussing some forms of pluralism
that seem either insufficiently interesting or quite unlikely to be true, the paper
suggests a new form which might be both interesting and true; however, the scope of the
pluralism that it allows logic is extremely narrow.
Religious Pluralism, Globalization,
and World Politics - Banchoff, Thomas.
Abstract: Globalization has spawned more active transnational religious communities,
creating a powerful force in world affairs. This book explores the patterns of cooperation
and conflict that mark this new religious pluralism. In this volume, leading scholars from
a variety of disciplines examine how the forces of religious pluralism and globalization
are playing out on the world stage.
Varieties of Healing. 1: Medical Pluralism in the
United States
Ted J. Kaptchuk, OMD, and David M. Eisenberg, MD
This essay presents a historical overview of medical pluralism in the United States.
Despite parallels with the past, the recent widespread interest in alternative medicine
also represents a dramatic reconfiguration of medical pluralism, from historical
antagonism to what might arguably be described as a topical acknowledgment of postmodern
medical diversity. This essay is an introduction to a discussion of a taxonomy of
contemporary U.S. medical pluralism, which also appears in this issue.
Pluralistic Naturalism
There are two main kinds of naturalism: materialism and pluralistic naturalism.
Materialism, or physicalism, is a "monistic" form of naturalism in that it
maintains that only one basic kind of stuff exists. Pluralistic
naturalism, by contrast, combines naturalism with ontological pluralism, the idea that
there is more than just one basic kind of stuff.
Value Pluralism and Liberal Political Order: The
Diversity Argument - Neal, Patrick
Abstract: Does value pluralism generate a case in support of liberal poilitcal principles?
This paper critically analyzes one set of arguments that claim to establish such a case,
those offered by George Crowder under the label of the "diversity argument."
Legal pluralism - European University Institute
(EUI)
Abstract: Legal pluralism has become a major theme in socio-legal studies. Despite
their eclectic character, these many conceptions of legal pluralism also share some common
fundamental premises concerning the nature of law, its function, and its relationship with
its cultural milieu.
Explanatory Pluralism and Heuristic Identity
Theory
Robert N. McCauley, Emory University - William Bechtel.
Explanatory pluralism holds that the sorts of comprehensive theoretical and ontological
economies that microreductionists and New Wave reductionists envision and
antireductionists fear offer misleading views of both scientific practice and scientific
progress. A brief review of research on visual processing provides
support for the explanatory pluralist's general model of cross-scientific relations and
discloses the valuable heuristic role hypothetical identities play in cross-scientific
research.
Pattern pluralism and the Tree of Life hypothesis
- W. Ford Doolittle and Eric Bapteste
Abstract: Pattern pluralism is an attractive alternative to the quixotic pursuit of a
single true TOL.