False Antinomies: Universalism and Particularism in Modern Political Life

Much confusion still exists with respect to determining the relation between the particular and the universal. Poststructuralists like Michel Foucault, Communitarians, Liberals, The pragmatists like Richard Rorty, and finally, John Rawls have different views dealt with in the article. From my perspective, however, all of these approaches are too abstract. My approach begins with the assumption that it perverts freedom to identity the concept with class, community, or the state. Freedom is only and exclusively the freedom of the individual to act in the world. The aim of my paper is to confront what usually appears as a “false antinomy” by highlighting the role of diversity for democratic society and the ways in which the liberal rule of law with its universal claims serves as the precondition for the freedom of the particular.