NAME

POINT OF VIEW

DESCARTES

Nothing was accepted unless it was judged defensible by

individual reason.

Hayek

Tried to make a fairly rigorous ideological distinction

between the effects of the Enlightenment on the
Continent and in Scotland.

Tom Paine
Sketched out Utopian schemes for conceptual societies
based on individual equality, rights and freedom seemed
to be coming to fruition.
Benjamin Constant

THE NATURE OF LIBERALISM

A key representative of the more balanced liberal

constitutionalist persuasion blamed the more extreme
etastite aspects of the Revolution on Jean Jacques
Rousseau.

Herbert Spencer

Viscount Molesworth

Tom Paine

Is cited as both the great summation of 19th century

liberalism and a complete maverick who stood outside
the mainstream beliefs.

Contended that there was an ancient British constitution

going back to the Anglo-Saxons and possibly to the Goths
and even the Trojans.

Was the first and most effective voice of radicalism who

tried to link the events of 1688 and 1789. His Rights of
Man was immensely popular in Britain.
George Dangerfield

J.H. Hallowell

INDIVIDUALISM
John Dewey

Hayek

Argued in his book The Strange Death of Liberal England

spoke of Britain in 1910 as about to shrug from its
shoulders a venerable burden, a kind of sack. It was
about to get rid of its Liberalism.

Saw the demise of integral liberalism though its loss of

moral content. Religious respect for the individual soul
had collapsed into moral relativism.

Wrote Individualism: Old and New

Distinguished between the abstract individual of early
19th century liberalism, and a more communal
understanding of the individual found in social liberalism.

Used the distinction differently in his essay Individualism:

True and False.

He distinguished rationalistic individualism-in writers such
as Wilhelm von Humboldt and JS Mill-from a true
individualism, which is more in line with the traditions and
conventions of a spontaneous market society.
Auberon Herbert

Ayn Rand

Purely rational individualism is unworkable.

Criticized the deeply individualist and Spencerite Liberty

and Property Defence League, which he claimed was a
little more warmly attached to the fair sister Property
than to the fair sister Liberty.
He became obsessed with the liberty of the individual,
advocating a voluntary state and voluntary taxation,
redolent of anarcho-capitalist.

Humboldt
Argued for more total liberty for the individual from an
entirely different philosophical standpoint. A rational life
for Rand was the pursuit of pure egoism by each
individual.

Henry Sidgwick

Detested the idea of states interference with individuality.

He wanted freedom for the maximum aesthetic

development of the individual, an idea explored
extensively in German literature.
For Humboldt, the richer a mans feelings become in
ideas, and his ideas in feelings, the more transcendent his
nobility.

Hayek

Contract is of fundamental importance to the

individualistic system. The contract is essential to unite
the individual atoms in the society.

T. H. Green

He doubts the rational premise built into utilitarianism,

namely, that anyone could calculate the general
happiness of society. He argues that reason is a limited
practical tool which guides individuals to the satisfaction
of their interests. No one can stand above their interests.

Argued that society was a means for individual selfrealization and character development.

Human good cannot be simply a succession of pleasures,

rather the true good is found in practices which provide an
enduring contribution to the common good of ones fellow
citizens.