Community, individuality and co-operation: The centrality of values

They are questions that appear relentlessly throughout human history. What rights and obligations do individuals have? What are the rights and roles that accrue to the communities to which they belong? Judging from the millennia of debates and the multitude of answers that have been given, it seems clear that there are no absolute and final answers; only inescapable, necessary, and frequently acrimonious, discourse. The questions invite constant searching for appropriate responses, whether one considers them in regards to the distribution of wealth gained individually or through joint effort, the economic and social relationships within family and communities, the roles of mosques, churches and synagogues, discussions on the relative merits of charity and self-help, or the proper functioning of the organisations that people create. The bodies of thought one might consider in exploring them stretch across all ideologies and religions as well as several academic disciplines; they are undercurrents in virtually all political debates – often they are central.