involved with exploring the ethos and strategies that should animate and
guide this adventure.’’ Likewise, Gunnell argues that the pluralist bias is
deeply infused and diVused in political theory; it is, in fact, ‘‘home’’—the
discursive heritage of theWeld (Gunnell 2004 , 249 ).
Central to this school of thought is both acknowledgment of the empirical
and experiential basis of moral and cultural plurality, and the design of
political engagement across that diVerence. This chapter will examine the
development of these aspects of pluralist theory, in order to illustrate both the
longevity of pluralist thought in the discipline and the resurrection of earlier
pluralist themes in recent theory. Monism, however, has not been pluralism’s
only challenge. The other major discourse of political theory—liberalism—
has often overshadowed the pluralist impulse, and much recent pluralist
theory has examined the interplay of the two schools of thought. Central to
both of these discussions is the problematic nature of acknowledging diVer-
ence, and the imaginative ways pluralists have proposed to engage that
dilemma.
2 Generations of Pluralists
.........................................................................................................................................................................................
Pluralism in political science began both as a case for value pluralism and
incommensurability and as a way to implement that knowledge in innovative
political designs. Centrally, theorists focused on an awareness, consideration,
and institutionalization of diVerence and group life below the level of the
state. The pluralist universe has always been based on one key empirical and
philosophical claim: the acceptance of the legitimacy of diVerence in per-
spectives. Here, the original inXuence was the pluralist and anti-absolutist
philosophy of William James.
James saw the methodology of ‘‘radical empiricism’’ as the basis of pluralist
philosophy. Here, ‘‘all we are required to admit as the constitution of reality is
what we ourselvesWnd empirically realized in every minimum ofWnite life’’
(James 1977 [ 1909 ], 145 ). James argued that as both what is experienced and
the consciousness of that experience varies for people, a pluralist universe is
empirically and objectively grounded. His pluralist approach was not just
a validation of the empirical reality of diVerence, but an insistence on
the pluralist imagination 143