The Conflict Between the Private Sphere and the Public Sphere: Robert Bellah’s “Habits of the Heart”

This is my second article on the American sociologist Robert Bellah’s book “Habits of the Heart.” The first article presented a general overview of Bellah’s argument. In a nutshell, Bellah argues that American culture lacks a moral language that is able to articulate moral values. Individualism has trumped over the larger context of community. In this article, I spell out Bellah’s arguments in a more detailed way.

Individualism has become the dominant mode of thought in American culture. Bellah refers to it as “our first language.” The American discourse concerning social and political matters, as a consequence, has become shallow and is unable to rise above the context of self interest. The people interviewed by Bellah and his colleagues in the book find it difficult to articulate their moral feelings. Bellah argues that a second language – a richer sense of moral discourse – is rooted in the republican and biblical traditions. However, the discourse of individualism has become dominant in American culture. One reason for this is the link between Utilitarianism, which Bellah associates with capitalism and industrialism, and individualism.

Bellah, like the American philosopher John Dewey, is critical of rampant individualism. Bellah accepts Dewey’s analysis that individualism played in an important role in the origins of American democracy. That is to say, the evolution of democracy in America was integrally related to the individualism. However, Dewey and Bellah both place the contemporary role of the autonomous individual in question. According to Bellah, “The question is whether an individualism in which the self can become the main form or reality can really be sustained.” In Bellah’s view, the real issue is the distinction between the public and the private sphere which forms the traditional framework of the American experiment in democracy. Bellah says: “What is at issue is not simply whether the self-contained individuals might withdraw from the public sphere to pursue private ends, but whether such individuals are capable of sustaining either a public or private life.” The point is that, without the larger context of a social whole – a community or historical tradition – the the individual is at a loss and incapable of sustaining himself or the public good.

It is a mistake to read Bellah as an “anti-individualist.” While he rejects the notion of the self-sufficient individual, he does so in order to argue for richer interpretation of what it means to be an individual. Community is crucially important for a fulfilled life and it is an essential element in making sense of one’s life. Bellah’s argument is that the idea of community has become problematic in contemporary American culture. The idea of the self-reliant individual who played an essential role in the development of democratic theory, in the American context, has made it difficult to think in terms of a broader moral discourse. It is the community that gives a sense of unity to an individual’s life. It provides a context of meaning. The idea of community is intimately related to the language, narratives, and histories that individuals rely on to articulate their sense of self and moral values.


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