Value Pluralism, Diversity and Liberalism

Few would disagree that contemporary society is characterized by ‘pluralism’, but what this means is widely disputed. Among the many senses of pluralism current in contemporary political theory, ‘value pluralism’ is one of the most keenly contested. The classic account is found in Isaiah Berlin, who sees basic human values as irreducibly multiple, often conflicting, and sometimes incommensurable with one another. Berlin seems in general to have believed that the pluralist outlook has an affinity of some sort with liberalism, although he does not make it clear what this affinity is.