Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- In Defence of Individualism
- Market Boundaries and Human Goods
- A Tale of Three Karls: Marx, Popper, Polanyi and Post-Socialist Europe
- Liberty's Hollow Triumph
- Politics, Religion, and National Identity
- Contemporary Art, Democracy, and the State
- Popular Culture and Public Affairs
- Welfare and the State
- Questions of Begging
- Philosophy and Educational Policy
- What did John Dewey Want?
- Educating for Citizenship
- Being Human: Science, Knowledge and Virtue
- Index
Liberty's Hollow Triumph
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- In Defence of Individualism
- Market Boundaries and Human Goods
- A Tale of Three Karls: Marx, Popper, Polanyi and Post-Socialist Europe
- Liberty's Hollow Triumph
- Politics, Religion, and National Identity
- Contemporary Art, Democracy, and the State
- Popular Culture and Public Affairs
- Welfare and the State
- Questions of Begging
- Philosophy and Educational Policy
- What did John Dewey Want?
- Educating for Citizenship
- Being Human: Science, Knowledge and Virtue
- Index
Summary
Liberalism as an ethical ideal
The history of liberalism is the history of an ethical ideal as well as a set of political and social arrangements. In the latter sense liberalism entrenches the juridical equality of all citizens, their equal civil and political rights – including among those rights a set of liberties strong enough to restrict the authority of society over the individual in a fundamental way. How to express in institutions this politically fundamental restriction is an important matter of debate, but that debate will not concern us. For present purposes I assume I can refer to liberalism as a set of political and social arrangements without further examination. Our concern will instead be the liberal ethical ideal and its present prospects.
What is this ideal? The question is best answered historically, both because the ideal has gone through significant changes and because many people who think of themselves as liberals are now seriously unsure about what it is or should be. Or so it seems.
Undoubtedly a central element of the liberal ideal has been an ethical and not just juridical idea of equal respect. It has been of utmost political importance. For more than two centuries, one might say – that is since the French Revolution, but certainly with earlier roots in the growth of towns, trade and individualism – it has helped to generate a drive towards juridical equality in all spheres, abolition of all forms of social discrimination.
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- Philosophy and Public Affairs , pp. 51 - 72Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000
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