1.

The Debate About Liberty

a. The Presumption in Favor of Liberty
i. Liberalism is the presumption that everyone has a right to choose his/her
own actions without being restrained
ii. Any view towards restricting liberty must be justified
1. Hobbes thought that drastic limitations on liberty can be justified,
so therefore he still qualifies as a liberal
b. Negative Liberty
i. Liberty means not being restricted by other human beings
c. Positive Liberty
i. Liberty means not being restricted by yourself, or illness, addictions,
personal limitations, etc
1. associated with Thomas Hill Green (d 1882)
d. Republican Liberty
i. Liberty means freedom from domination by others
1. distinguished from negative liberty by being against even the
possibility of being dominated by others
ii. Associated with ancient Roman slavery, Cicero, etc
2. The Debate Between the ‘Old’ and the ‘New’
a. Classical Liberalism
i. Views liberty as property rights
ii. a free market based on property rights is therefore the embodiment of
freedom
1. vehemently opposed to government interference with free market
b. The ‘New Liberalism’
i. Does not view liberty as equivalent to property rights
ii. Suspicion that the free market could guarantee liberty
1. market downturns of the early 20th Century
2. success of government in regulating the economy
3. western democracy and the belief that politicians could be true
representatives
4. property rights generate inequality for the working class
c. Liberal Theories of Social Justice
i. the ‘New Liberalism’ is now focused on ‘social justice’
ii. associated with John Rawls (d 2004) and his book A Theory of Justice in
which he espoused his ‘difference principle’:
1. a just society is focused on arranging inequalities to advantage
the least well off groups: welfare state
2. Some have interpreted the ‘difference principle’ as more a
commitment to equality than to redistribution of wealth: egalitarian
liberalism
iii. in later writings Rawls denied that the welfare state is a just version of
society
 iv. Hayek and Nozick criticize government attempts to manipulate the market
as a restriction on freedom
3. The Debate About the Comprehensiveness of Liberalism
a. Political Liberalism
i. Rawls denies that liberalism should be a comprehensive philosophy
encompassing ethics, epistemology, etc
ii. It should be a neutral basis for other philosophies to fit into
iii. others (Gauss 2004) disagree that it can disengage from all other
philosophies in that way
b. Liberal Ethics
i. John Stuart Mill liberal ethics is that each person seeks to thrive as a
human being, to reach perfection as a human
ii. in contrast, there are two versions of contractual theory as liberal ethics:
1. Kantian: each person may have their own moral goal, so society
should seek to allow them this
2. Hobbesian: each person is self-interested; a just society is one
which enhances the individual’s abilities to pursue her own
interest
c. Liberal Theories of Value
i. three competing theories of value:
1. perfectionism: the pursuit of perfection as a human being;
presupposes values of right and wrong
2. pluralism: there are many different ends and goals, and achieving
some only comes at the cost of abandoning others
3. subjectivism: goals and ends stem from personal taste
ii. all three theories agree that each individual has different goals and
therefore makes rationally different choices about what to do
d. The Metaphysics of Liberalism
i. the debate between liberalism at the individual or societal level
ii. John Stuart Mill argued that only individuals count and that the properties
of society derive from the properties of individuals
iii. late 19th Century reasoning turned away from individualism and reasoned
that society is like an organism that is greater than the sum of the parts
iv. around WWII Karl Popper (d 1994) brought liberal thinking back to
individualism
v. the last 25 years have seen a return to what is now called
“communitarian” thinking in liberalism: criticisms from e.g. Sandel that
liberalism rests on the idea of the individual as a pure “chooser”
4. The Debate About The Reach of Liberalism
a. Is Liberalism Justified in All Political Communities?
i. John Stuart Mill argued that some societies, like barbarians, have to live
under a despotism
ii. Rawls argued that a good society could be hierarchical, with people as
responsible members of their groups but not inherently equal
 iii. Pogge and Nussbaum (2002) argue that liberal ideas apply to all peoples
b. Is Liberalism a Cosmopolitan or a State-centered Theory?
i. debate about whether liberalism applies to the whole world or to individual
states
ii. Kant argued that all states should respect the freedom of the individual
but denied that the world is one large political group
iii. on classical liberalism, there is little concern for borders
iv. on new liberalism, there is much concern for borders because wealth
redistribution needs to apply only to certain social groups
c. Liberal Interaction with Non-Liberal Groups: International
i. is it ok for a liberal group to interfere with non-liberal groups?
ii. John Stuart Mill argued that it is ok to interfere in a barbarous group, but
interference in a civilized non-liberal group might not work for the people
iii. imposition of liberalism on a non-liberal society may also be seen as
immoral, since a society has the collective right to self determination
iv. Rawls argues that there should be toleration for “decent” non-liberal
societies, but not for “outlaw” non-liberal societies
d. Liberal Interaction with Non-Liberal Groups: Domestic
i. to what extent should non-liberal groups be exempt from the state?
1. long tradition of seeking to accommodate the freedom of religious
groups
2. problematic when it comes to children and education
a. some have argued that the state should intervene on
behalf of education for children
b. others have argued that this goes against liberal principles
ii. to what extent should non-liberal groups be allowed to participate in the
state?
1. Rawls argued that there is pluralism, so coercian should not come
from a religious or metaphysical system
2. others retort that this keeps voters from voting on their deepest
convictions
3. Rawls allows for religious and metaphysical policies if they are
supported by public reasons: e.g. abolition of slavery, civil rights
5. Conclusion
a. the term “liberalism” has much variety and opposing views
b. but all are united in thinking of “liberty” as the grounding political value