Competing Anthropologies and the Neutral State: A Reply to Dr. Kittay

Thank you Eva for you thoughtful response to my post.  I heartily agree with much of what you say.  You seem (or so it seems to me) to implicitly accept the notion that in a pluralistic society like ours, the dominant culture (including its manifestation in the state) must be neutral as to competing comprehensive conceptions of the good.  But, as many liberal scholars (Carens, Dwyer, among others) have pointed out, liberal neutrality is an illusion.  Some comprehensive conception of the good is going to dominate in each society - it might be Christian or secular enlightenment (I use this term because you used it in your post, others might call it secular liberal or just liberal) in the U.S., Jewish or secular enlightenment in Israel, and Muslim or secular enlightenment in Turkey.  And, in each of these democracies, a key question is how much space is going to be allotted for non-believers (those who don't abide by the dominant comprehensive conception of the good) to develop and live their lives in their own communities according to their own comprehensive conceptions of the good.  For example, will Turkey allow the reopening of an Orthodox seminary so that Turkish Christians can perpetuate their faith intergenerationally?  How much space (metaphorically speaking) will Israel give to its Arab (both Christian and Muslim) minorities to develop?  Among secular liberals today, the question of how much space to give Christians is much contested.  Must Christian pharmacists and nurses be made to conform to secular norms regarding abortificients and abortions as the price of practicing their profession?  Must Catholic Charities abide by secular norms when it comes to offering health insurance to its employees?  Must Christian student groups sacrifice their Christian identity as the price for admission on college campuses?  Must Catholic adoption agencies conform to secular norms regarding adoptions by gay parents as the price of continiuing to perform this work that has been performed by the Church for 2000 years?  James Dwyer would even have Christian schools and Christian parents conform to his secular liberal values as the price of educating and parenting.

If I am right about this, then we ought to explore the *reasons* for adopting one competing comprehensive conception of the good over another as the dominant or foundational anthropology for our culture (including its laws).