Niclas Rautenberg, University of Essex

Conflicts over values are an inevitable part of modern polities. What should we aim at when confronted with them? Approaches of Conflict Resolution in philosophy argue in favour of a full moral consensus, aiming at the realization of end-state justice by way of reasonable deliberation between all stakeholders. Theorists of Conflict Containment, on the other hand, consider consensus an unrealistic goal in modern democracies; instead, they argue in favour of a temporary compromise or modus vivendi that upholds peace and order in a polity composed of various ways of life. The diagnosis underpinning my research project is that neither Conflict Resolution nor Conflict Containment approaches provide satisfactory answers to the problem of value conflict. The reason for this is that both approaches are not based on a phenomenological analysis that brings out the range of different value conflicts we are actually dealing with; instead, each approach (wrongly) stipulates that all value conflicts fit a particular mold. In order to show this, I will provide a phenomenological analysis of real-world instances of value conflicts. For my claim is that only on the basis of such deeper understanding of the different kinds of value conflicts and how they are experienced by those involved in them, can we generate sound answers to the above questions. The goal is to develop a dynamic model to value conflicts providing strategies for specific conflict types and for the transition from one type to another.