Pluralism is a term used to describe a number of positions from different fields. This entry will confine itself to a discussion of ethical—as opposed to political, social, or metaphysical—pluralism.

Basic Definition and History

Ethical pluralism (also referred to as value pluralism) is a theory about the nature of the values or goods that human beings pursue, and the pursuit of which make up the substance of their moral lives. Most simply ethical pluralism holds that the values or goods legitimately pursued by human beings are plural, incompatible, and incommensurable. That is, there are many genuine human values, which cannot all be reduced to, or described in terms of, a single overriding value or system of values. This is because certain human values, by their very nature, come into conflict with other, equally valid, human values. Individual liberty, for instance, can conflict with equality...