Individual rights in Schleiermacher’s limited communitarian state

In his lectures on ethics and on the state Schleiermacher develops a theory of a limited communitarian state, one that purports to balance individual interests and rights with the more general aims of the state. I defend Schleiermacher against recent objections to his theory: first, that he subordinates individual rights to the advancement of the state, and second, and relatedly, that he tends to collectivize rights and freedom. The first objection overlooks Schleiermacher's account of rational action. An analysis of Schleiermacher's account of practical rationality reveals that individual rights are inscribed within the intersubjectively grounded, normative structure of rational action. This answers the first objection. I argue that the second objection turns on a conception of individuality Schleiermacher rejects and ignores his arguments against the view of individuality the objection imposes on him. Thus, the objection that Schleiermacher has a deflationary view of individual rights fails.