Abstract of "Moral Conflict: When Social Worlds Collide" by Pearce, W. Barnett and Stephen W. Littlejohn

Conflict Consortium Abstract

This book seeks to develop new, more productive ways of expressing moral difference and managing moral conflicts. These are conflicts in which the social worlds or moral orders of parties are incommensurate and they give fundamentally different answers to serious moral questions. The authors examine the structure of moral conflict and describe it as a form of communication. Communication is a process of making or doing something, it involves coordination, and it is always contextual. By drawing on these basic principles of communication, the authors hope to provide ways to transform moral conflicts. They explore "transcendent discourse" and dialogue as ways to create a new shared language through which the parties can coordinate their differing world views.