The Love-hate Dilemma of Western Patriotism as Understood by MacIntyre, Nussbaum and Others

Since the Enlightenment, liberalism highlights individual autonomy. Correspondingly, civic education put emphasis on restriction of state power and counterbalance between rights and obligations, instead of patriotism, identity, loyalty, sacrifice and other positive virtues. In the view of liberalism, patriotism and nationalism might lead to chauvinism. On the other side, communitarianism represented by A. MacIntyre believes country is of constitute value so that patriotism is ought to be treated squarely. In contrast, Nussbaum declares that cosmopolitanism should precede over patriotism from the perspective of moral universalism and global communication. Besides, Y. Tamir advocates liberal nationalism, while M. Viroli proposes to patriotism without nationalism, both of which attempt to neutralize the tension between communitarianism and liberalism. As far as I am concerned, not merely the debates about patriotism in western world is valuable for the Eastern, but the Western had better review their anti-china behaviors in the aspects of politics and economy nowadays. In brief, it is not supposed to hinder globalization, cooperation between east and west and world peace, when the west summons the spirit of patriotism.