Abstract

The consumerist elevation of wants into needs requires the elevation of ethical relativism into the status of a "dogma." Collectivism and individualism are the two faces of this dogma and require the uneasy mediation of the claims of utilitarianism and romanticism. The historical and philosophical backdrop for this mediation is suggested with reference to Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant, J.S. Mill, De Tocqueville, and Oakeshott