Download Liberalism Core concepts The individual 1. In the feudal period there

Liberalism
Core concepts
The individual
1. In the feudal period there was little idea of individuals having their own interests or
possessing personal and uniue identities. Tahter people were seen as members of the
social groups to which they belonged. However, as feudalism was displaced by
increasingly market-orientated societies, individuals were confronted by a broader range
of choices and social possibilities.
2. Rational and scientific explanations gradually displaced traditional religious
theories, and society was increasingly understood from the viewpoint of the human
individual, possessing personal and distinctive qualities. This was the evident in the
growth of natural rights and autonomy.
3. The emphasis on the individual has two implications. a) uniqueness: it draws
attention to the uniqueness of each human being. b) equality: the nevertheless share the
same status in that they are all individuals.
4. Atomistic view of society: Some liberals view society as simply a collection of
individuals, each seeking to satisfy his or her own needs and interests. It can lead to the
belief that society itself does not exist, but is merely a collection of self-sufficient
individuals. Such extreme individualism is based upon the assumption that
the
individual is egotistical, essentially self-seeking and lagrely self-reliant. C. B.
Macpherson characterized this as possessive individualism because it regarded the
individual as ‘the proprietor（所有者）of his own person or capacities, owing nothing
to society for them’.
5. In contrast, later liberals have held a mor optimistic view of human nature, and
believe that individuals possess a social responsibility for one another.
Freedon
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1. For early liberals, liberty was a natural right, an essential requirement for leading a
truly human existence. It also gave individuals the opportunity to pursue their own
interests by exercising choice. Later liberals have seen liberty as the only condition in
which people are able to develop their skills and talents and fulfil their potential.
2. Nevertheless, liberals do not accept that individuals have an ‘licence’ entitlement to
freedom. J. S. Mill in his On Liberty distinguished between ‘self-regarding’ and ‘otherregarding’ actions.
3. Isaiah Berlin’s Two concepts of liberty.
Reason
1. The liberal case for freedom is closely linked to a faith in reason. Liberalism is, and
remains, very much part of the Enlightenment project. The central theme of
Enlightenment was the desire to release humankind from its bondage to superstition and
ignorance, and unleash an ‘age of reason’.
2. Enlightenment rationalism influenced liberalism in a number of ways. a) It
strengthened its faith in both the individual and in liberty. To the extent that human
beings are rational, thinking creatures, they are capable of defining and pursuing their
own best interests.==> a strong bias against paternalism. b) A further legacy of
rationalism is that liberals are strongly inclined to believe in progress. In the liberal view,
the expansion of knowledge, particularly through scientific revolution, enabled people
not only to understand and explain their world but also to help shape it from the better.
Rationalism thus emancipates humankind from the grip of the past and from the weight
of custom and tradition.==> emphasis upon education.
3. Reason, moreover, is significant in highlighting the importance of discussion,
debate and argument. Conflicts can be settled trugh debate and negotiation The great
advantage of reason is that it provides a basis upon which rival claims and demands can
be evaluated. Furthermore, it highlights the cost of not resolving disputes peacefully.
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Noth only does violence mark the failure of reason, but all too often it also unleasheds
irrational blood lusts and the desire forr power for its own sake.
Justice
1. Justice denotes a particular kind of moral judgement, in particular one about the
distribution of rewards and punishment. In short justice is about giving each person what
he or she is ‘due’. The narrorer ida of social justice refers to the distribution of materaial
rewards and benefits in society, such as wages, profits, housing medical care and so on.
2. The liberal theory of justice is based upon a belief in equality of various kinds. a)
individualism implies a commitment to foundational equality. Each individual is of
equal moral worth, an idea embodied in the notion of natural rights or human rights. b)
Foundational equality implies a belief in formal equality, that individuals should enjoy
the same forman status in society, particularly in terms of the distribution of rights and
entitlements. Consequently liberals disapprove of any social privileges. The most
important forms of formal equality are ligal equality and political equality.==>equality
before the law and one person, one vote; one vote, one values. c) Liberals subscribe to a
belief in equality of opportunity. People are not born the same. Equality, for liberals,
means that individuals should have an equal opportunity to develop their unequal skills
and abilities. ==> meritocracy: rule by the talented or able.
3. However, liberal thinkers have disagreed about how these broad principles of
justice should be applied in practice. Classical liberals have endorsed strict meritocracy
on both economic and moral grounds. Those with more ability or who have worked hard
have ‘earned’ their wealth and deserve to be more prosperoous than the lazy or
feckless （ 無 能 的 ） .Modern liberals, on the other hand, have taken social justice to
imply a belief in some measure of social equality.==> Rawls’ principle of difference.
Toleration and diversity
1. The liberal social ethic celebrates moral, cultural and political diversity. Indeed,
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pluralism or diversity can be said to be rooted in the principle of individualism.
However, the liberal preference for diversity has more commonly been associated with
toleration.
2. Toleration is a willingness to allow people to think, speak and atc in ways of which
we disapprove. It is both an ethical ideal and social principle. One the one hand, it
represents the goal of personal autonomy; on the other, it establishes a set of rules about
how human beings should behave towards one another.
3. Toleration highlights the distinction between ‘public’ and ‘private’ spheres of life.
Toleration should be extended to all matters regarded as private and thus is a guarantee
of negative freedom.
4. Mill developed a wilder justification for toleration as is important to society. Only
within a free market of ideas will ‘truth’ emerge, as good ideas displace bad ones and
ignorance is banished. Liberal hold that there is a deeper harmony or balance amongst
competing interests. Sympathy for tolerance and diversity is thus linked to a balanced
society.
5. However, liberal toleration does not imply suport for unrestricted pluralism and
diversity. toleration my be qualified in relation to views that are in themselves intolerant.
6. Since the late twentieth century, however, many liberals have gone beyond
toleration and endorsed the idea of moral neutrlity.
LIERALISM, GOVERNMENT AND DEMOCRACY
The liberal state
1. Liberals do not believe tat a balanced and tolerant society will develop naturally out
of the free actions of individuals and voluntary associations. This is where liberals
disagree with anarchists. The liberty of one person is always in danger of becoming a
licence to abuse another. Each person can be said to be both a threat to and under threat
from every other member of society.
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2. This argument is the basis of social contract theories, c.f. Hobbes and Locke. It
embodies several important liberal attitudes towards the state. a) It suggests that the
political authority comes ‘from below’. b) The state as an umpire（仲裁者）or neutral
referee in society.
Constitutional Government
1. Although liberals are convinced of the need for government, they are also aware of
the dangers that government embodies. All governments are potential tyrannies against
the individual. On the one hand, government exercises sovereign power and so poses a
constant threat to individual liberty; on the other, As human beings are self-seeking
creatures, if they have power, they will naturally use it for their own benefit at the
expense of others.
2. A constitution is a set of rules that seek to allocate duties, powers and functions
amongst the various institutions of government.
3. Support for constitutionalism can take two forms. a) the powers of government
bodies and politicians can be limited by the introduction of external and usually legal
constraints. b) constitutionalism can be established by the introduction of internal
constraints which disperse（傳播）political power among a number of institutions and
creat a network of ‘checks and balances’.
Democracy
1. As a model of democracy, liberal democracy has three central features. a) it is an
indiret and representative form of democracy, on the basis of formal political equality; b)
it is based upon competition and electoral choice, which is ensured by political pluralism
and a tolerance of contending beliefs; c) it is characterized by a clear distinction between
the state and civil society, to maintain the distinction between the public and the private,
both by internal and external checks on government power and autonomous groups, and
by the market or economic life.
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2. The earliest liberal justification for democracy was based on consent==> Locke.
3. A more radical endorsement of democracy is linked to the virtues of political
participation==>Mill. For Mill the central virtue of democracy is that, by participating in
political life, citizens enhance their understanding, strengthen their sensibilities and
acheive a higher level of personal development.
4. Since the 20th century, liberal theories about democracy focus mor on the need of
consensus in society. It is argued tha t organized groups, rather than individuals, have
become the primary political actors and portrayed modern industrial societies. The
attraction of democracy, thus, is that it is the only system of rule capable of maintaining
equilibrium within complex and fluid modern societies. As democracy gives competing
groups a political voice it binds them to the political system and so maintains political
stability.==> Robert Dahl’s ‘polyarchies’, namely rule by the many as distinct from all
citizens. Whilst this may fall a long way short of the classical ideal of popular selfgovernment, it has the crucial advantage of maintaining a consistent level of
accountability and popular responsiveness.
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