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Liberalism with Excellence

Liberalism with Excellence PDF Author: Matthew H. Kramer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191083836
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 447

Book Description
During the past several decades, political philosophers have frequently clashed with one another over the question whether governments are morally required to remain neutral among reasonable conceptions of excellence and human flourishing. Whereas the numerous followers of John Rawls (and kindred philosophers such as Ronald Dworkin) have maintained that a requirement of neutrality is indeed incumbent on every system of governance, other philosophers — often designated as 'perfectionists' — have argued against the existence of such a requirement. Liberalism with Excellence enters these debates not by plighting itself unequivocally to one side or the other, but instead by reconceiving each of the sides and thus by redirecting the debates that have occurred between them. On the one hand, the book rejects the requirement of neutrality by contending that certain subsidies for the promotion of excellence in sundry areas of human endeavour can be proper and vital uses of resources by governments. Advocating such departures from the constraint of neutrality, the book presents a version of liberalism that can rightly be classified as 'perfectionist'. On the other hand, the species of perfectionism espoused in Liberalism with Excellence diverges markedly from the theories that have usually been so classified. Indeed, much of the book assails various aspects of those theories. What is more, the aspirational perfectionism elaborated in the closing chapters of the volume is reconcilable in most key respects with a suitably amplified version of Rawlsianism. Hence, by reconceiving both the perfectionist side and the neutralist side of the prevailing disputation, Liberalism with Excellence combines and transforms their respective insights.

Liberalism with Excellence

Liberalism with Excellence PDF Author: Matthew H. Kramer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191083836
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 447

Book Description
During the past several decades, political philosophers have frequently clashed with one another over the question whether governments are morally required to remain neutral among reasonable conceptions of excellence and human flourishing. Whereas the numerous followers of John Rawls (and kindred philosophers such as Ronald Dworkin) have maintained that a requirement of neutrality is indeed incumbent on every system of governance, other philosophers — often designated as 'perfectionists' — have argued against the existence of such a requirement. Liberalism with Excellence enters these debates not by plighting itself unequivocally to one side or the other, but instead by reconceiving each of the sides and thus by redirecting the debates that have occurred between them. On the one hand, the book rejects the requirement of neutrality by contending that certain subsidies for the promotion of excellence in sundry areas of human endeavour can be proper and vital uses of resources by governments. Advocating such departures from the constraint of neutrality, the book presents a version of liberalism that can rightly be classified as 'perfectionist'. On the other hand, the species of perfectionism espoused in Liberalism with Excellence diverges markedly from the theories that have usually been so classified. Indeed, much of the book assails various aspects of those theories. What is more, the aspirational perfectionism elaborated in the closing chapters of the volume is reconcilable in most key respects with a suitably amplified version of Rawlsianism. Hence, by reconceiving both the perfectionist side and the neutralist side of the prevailing disputation, Liberalism with Excellence combines and transforms their respective insights.

Should I Be Proud of Liberalism with Excellence? On the Collective Grounds of Self-Respect

Should I Be Proud of Liberalism with Excellence? On the Collective Grounds of Self-Respect PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
Abstract In Liberalism with Excellence Kramer offers an account of liberalism that gets at something liberal philosophy often overlooks: the crucial importance for individuals of the success of their groups. According to Kramer, Rawlsian liberals acknowledge the importance to a just society of individuals enjoying warranted self-respect, but they overlook the fact that such warranted self-respect can be promoted by the state investing in the excellence of the society to which the individuals belong. In particular, warranted individual self-respect can be bolstered by one's society's achieving excellence, including through the exceptional artistic, sporting and other achievements of some of its individual members. Therefore, not only perfectionists who already think it is the state's role to promote valuable modes of living, but also Rawlsian liberals should expect the state to be in the business of investing in exceptional human achievements. In the article, I examine the core idea, on which the argument relies, that individual warranted self-respect can be promoted by the state through the promotion of the excellence of one’s society. I identify mechanisms through which individuals' warranted self-respect and society's excellence can stand in such a relationship. I argue that Kramer’s own account does not offer enough details for us to be able to judge whether it succeeds, and I suggest a possible direction in which the argument could be developed.

Liberalism with Honor

Liberalism with Honor PDF Author: Sharon R. Krause
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674007565
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 287

Book Description
Why do men and women sometimes risk everything to defend their liberties? What motivates principled opposition to the abuse of power? In Liberalism with Honor, Sharon Krause explores honor as a motive for risky and difficult forms of political action. She shows the sense of honor to be an important source of such action and a spring of individual agency more generally. Krause traces the genealogy of honor, including its ties to conscientious objection and civil disobedience, beginning in old-regime France and culminating in the American civil rights movement. She examines the dangers intrinsic to honor and the tensions between honor and modern democracy, but demonstrates that the sense of honor has supported political agency in the United States from the founders to democratic reformers such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Martin Luther King, Jr. Honor continues to hold interest and importance today because it combines self-concern and personal ambition with principled higher purposes, and so challenges the disabling dichotomy between self-interest and self-sacrifice that currently pervades both political theory and American public life.

Liberalism and Social Action

Liberalism and Social Action PDF Author: John Dewey
Publisher: Great Books in Philosophy
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 104

Book Description
In this, one of Dewey's most accessible works, he surveys the history of liberal thought from John Locke to John Stuart Mill, in his search to find the core of liberalism for today's world. While liberals of all stripes have held to some very basic values-liberty, individuality, and the critical use of intelligence-earlier forms of liberalism restricted the state function to protecting its citizens while allowing free reign to socioeconomic forces. But, as society matures, so must liberalism as it reaches out to redefine itself in a world where government must play a role in creating an environment in which citizens can achieve their potential. Dewey's advocacy of a positive role for government-a new liberalism-nevertheless finds him rejecting radical Marxists and fascists who would use violence and revolution rather than democratic methods to aid the citizenry.

Liberalism

Liberalism PDF Author: Michael Freeden
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199670439
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 161

Book Description
Michael Freeden explores the concept of liberalism, one of the longest-standing and central political theories and ideologies. Combining a variety of approaches, he distinguishes between liberalism as a political movement, as a system of ideas, and as a series of ethical and philosophical principles.

Reforming Liberalism

Reforming Liberalism PDF Author: Robert Devigne
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300133901
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 319

Book Description
In Reforming Liberalism, Robert Devigne challenges prevailing interpretations of the political and moral thought of John Stuart Mill and the theoretical underpinnings of modern liberal philosophy. He explains how Mill drew from ancient and romantic thought as well as past religious practices to reconcile conflicts and antinomies (liberty and virtue, self-interest and morality, equality and human excellence) that were hobbling traditional liberalism. The book shows that Mill, regarded as a seminal writer in the liberal tradition, critiques liberalism’s weaknesses with a forcefulness usually associated with its well-known critics. Devigne explores Mill’s writings to demonstrate how his thought has been misconstrued--as well as oversimplified--to the detriment of our understanding of liberalism itself.

Replies to the Symposium Articles on Liberalism With Excellence

Replies to the Symposium Articles on Liberalism With Excellence PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
Abstract In a symposium held at Christ Church, Oxford University in June 2017, eleven philosophers presented ten papers on my 2017 book Liberalism with Excellence. Seven of those papers, in revised forms—by George Sher, Han van Wietmarschen, Paul Billingham & Anthony Taylor, Clare Chambers, Steven Wall, Cécile Laborde, and Zofia Stemplowska—have appeared in this issue of the American Journal of Jurisprudence. In this article, I reply to the main points raised by each of those papers.

The Assault on American Excellence

The Assault on American Excellence PDF Author: Anthony T. Kronman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 150119951X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
“I want to call it a cry of the heart, but it’s more like a cry of the brain, a calm and erudite one.” —Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal The former dean of Yale Law School argues that the feverish egalitarianism gripping college campuses today is a threat to our democracy. College education is under attack from all sides these days. Most of the handwringing—over free speech, safe zones, trigger warnings, and the babying of students—has focused on the excesses of political correctness. That may be true, but as Anthony Kronman shows, it’s not the real problem. “Necessary, humane, and brave” (Bret Stephens, The New York Times), The Assault on American Excellence makes the case that the boundless impulse for democratic equality gripping college campuses today is a threat to institutions whose job is to prepare citizens to live in a vibrant democracy. Three centuries ago, the founders of our nation saw that for this country to have a robust government, it must have citizens trained to have tough skins, to make up their own minds, and to win arguments not on the basis of emotion but because their side is closer to the truth. Without that, Americans would risk electing demagogues. Kronman is the first to tie today’s campus clashes to the history of American values, drawing on luminaries like Alexis de Tocqueville and John Adams to argue that our modern controversies threaten the best of our intellectual traditions. His tone is warm and wise, that of an educator who has devoted his life to helping students be capable of living up to the demands of a free society—and to do so, they must first be tested in a system that isn’t focused on sympathy at the expense of rigor and that values excellence above all.

Liberalism Beyond Justice

Liberalism Beyond Justice PDF Author: John Tomasi
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400824214
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 182

Book Description
Liberal regimes shape the ethical outlooks of their citizens, relentlessly influencing their most personal commitments over time. On such issues as abortion, homosexuality, and women's rights, many religious Americans feel pulled between their personal beliefs and their need, as good citizens, to support individual rights. These circumstances, argues John Tomasi, raise new and pressing questions: Is liberalism as successful as it hopes in avoiding the imposition of a single ethical doctrine on all of society? If liberals cannot prevent the spillover of public values into nonpublic domains, how accommodating of diversity can a liberal regime actually be? To what degree can a liberal society be a home even to the people whose viewpoints it was formally designed to include? To meet these questions, Tomasi argues, the boundaries of political liberal theorizing must be redrawn. Political liberalism involves more than an account of justified state coercion and the norms of democratic deliberation. Political liberalism also implies a distinctive account of nonpublic social life, one in which successful human lives must be built across the interface of personal and public values. Tomasi proposes a theory of liberal nonpublic life. To live up to their own deepest commitments to toleration and mutual respect, liberals, he insists, must now rethink their conceptions of social justice, civic education, and citizenship itself. The result is a fresh look at liberal theory and what it means for a liberal society to function well.

Liberalism and the Good

Liberalism and the Good PDF Author: R. Bruce Douglass
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000704742
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 297

Book Description
First published in 1990. Liberalism and the Good is a collection of critical essays by an inter-disciplinary group of American and English scholars that seeks to address the long-standing problem of the good in light of the most recent developments in liberal theory. With contributions from both liberal apologists and critics who pursue arguments informed by sources as disparate as Nietzsche and Aristotle, it breaks fresh ground in a number of different directions and offers proposals for the future of the discussion.