Walzer and Fukuyama: a False Dichotomy

The grammar of the prompt suggests a tension between the work Fukuyama and Walzer, that the notion of moral minimalist and an end-of-history are incommensurable ideas. I believe this to be a false dichotomy as Walzer’s notions of moral maximalist are simply culturally contingent and specific articulations of universal moral values, an idea that is not in conflict with Fukuyama’s thesis. Even if one believes that societies around the world are moving inexorably in the direction of a single notion of moral good, that does not in any way mean that that moral system is upon us now. As Fukuyama said in his review of Walzer’s work in Foreign Affairs magazine, in which he largely praised Walzer’s formulation of moral minimalism and maximalism, “compartmentalization of “maximalist” critiques may be an unnecessary concession to relativism given the degree of cultural homogenization that is going on in the world alongside cultural differentiation”.  Thus Fukuyama does not reject Walzer’s descriptive analysis of moral system, he merely questions its relevance given the eventuality of universal system of values and goods, of which morality would no doubt be an integral piece.

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