DOCSLIB.ORG

Political Thought of Montesquieu Political Science 148 Tufts University Spring Semester 2015

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Political Thought of Montesquieu Political Science 148 Tufts University Spring Semester 2015 Seminar: Political Thought of Montesquieu Political Science 148 Tufts University Spring Semester 2015 This seminar will study Montesquieu’s political thought as it emerges through his comparative analysis of political regimes—Western and Eastern, ancient and modern—in his major work The Spirit of the Laws. Montesquieu’s thought is central in the history of political thought both because he is the Continental philosopher who had the greatest impact on the American founding and because he is an important figure in the transition from ancient to modern thought. Themes will include the principles that guide tyranny, monarchy, and republican government; the principle of separation of powers; the meaning of political liberty; the impact of commerce on political life; the relation of mores to laws; the extent to which political regimes affect human possibility; and the character of Montesquieu’s liberalism. We will begin, however, with an examination of Montesquieu’s Persian Letters, his first major work. It is a novel in the form of letters that tells the story of two Persians traveling in and around Paris. Despite its pleasing character, this work is a penetrating analysis of political, religious, and sexual tyranny. We will ask what the relation of this work is to his great work of political philosophy, The Spirit of the Laws. Office Hours: Vickie Sullivan [email protected] x72328 Mondays, 1:30-2:30 p.m. (Classics, Eaton 328) Wednesdays, 1:30-3:30 p.m. (Political Science, Packard 206) Other times by appointment Required Books: Montesquieu, Persian Letters, trans., C.J. Betts, Penguin Books. Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, ed. Anne Cohler et al, Cambridge University Press. Books on Reserve: David W. Carrithers, Michael A. Mosher, and Paul A. Rahe, eds., Montesquieu’s Science of Politics: Essays on the “Spirit of the Laws” (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2001). JC179 .M74 2001 Anne M. Cohler, Montesquieu’s Comparative Politics and the Spirit of American Constitutionalism (Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas, 1988). JC179.M753 C64 1 Sharon R. Krause, Liberalism with Honor (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002). JC574.U6 K73 2002 Alan Macfarlane, The Riddle of the Modern World: Of Liberty, Wealth and Equality (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000). JC585 .M43 2000 Pierre Manent, The City of Man, trans. Marc A. LePain (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1998). BD450 .M267713 1998 Pierre Manent, An Intellectual History of Liberalism, trans. Rebecca Balinski (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994). JC571 .M326613 1994 Thomas L. Pangle, Montesquieu’s Philosophy of Liberalism: A Commentary on the “Spirit of the Laws” (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973). JC179.M8 P35 Thomas L. Pangle, The Theological Basis of Liberal Modernity in Montesquieu’s “Spirit of the Laws” (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010). JC179.M8 P36 2010 Diana J. Schaub, Erotic Liberalism: Women and Revolution in Montesquieu’s “Persian Letters (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1995). PQ2011.L6 S33 1995 Robert Shackleton, Montesquieu: A Critical Biography (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1961). JC179.M8 Judith N. Shklar, Montesquieu, Past Masters Series, (Oxford; New York : Oxford University Press, 1987). PQ2012 .S53 1987 Requirements: As this is a seminar, class participation will be an integral part of the course. To aid participation, beginning the second week of the semester, one student shall write a “class paper” (7 to 10 pages in length) on the material to be discussed in class. The class paper will be due at noon on the Monday before the class meeting and will be made available to the other members of the seminar through <https://trunk.tufts.edu>. Each student will be required to write one such paper during the course of the semester. Class papers should offer an insightful interpretation of the assigned text that elucidates its meaning. Each student is responsible for determining the topic on which he or she will write. As you write your class paper, please keep the following things in mind. After you have selected a topic, you will need to frame the argument. You should state the thesis explicitly in the introduction of the paper and support it vigorously throughout the paper. This means that you must know what you are going to argue before you begin writing. (Often, when writing, one makes important discoveries that change the direction of the argument. When such a fortunate event happens to you—and it is fortunate—it is necessary to rewrite the essay to take account of your new insight.) 2 In addition to having a thesis, the class paper must provide evidence for the argument. It is necessary to quote and to cite the evidence from the work that the paper interprets. Sources from the required reading should be cited in the text as follows: Montesquieu says, “Political liberty is found only in moderate governments” (Spirit of the Laws, 11.4, p. 155); or Rica adopts Western dress (Persian Letters, L. 30, p. 83). (After your initial naming of the text you need not repeat it in the references, unless you also cite from both works, e.g. both Spirit of the Laws and Persian Letters.) If you are not using the editions that I ordered for the class, please provide information regarding your editions in a note. It is not necessary to consult outside sources for these class papers, but if you do, you must provide full references to any outside sources in notes. The other members of the seminar are required to write reaction papers (1-2 pages in length) to the week’s class paper, which are due at the seminar meeting each week. In writing the response paper, you should concentrate on the argument of that week’s paper. Is the argument clear? Is it well supported? Is there other evidence that the author ignores that would buttress the point? Does other evidence exist that contradicts the thesis of the student paper? Are there ramifications of the argument that the author ignores? All these questions could furnish the focus of a response paper. When providing additional evidence in your response paper, follow the directions above for citation of the text. Obviously, in order to write the reaction paper, it is necessary to have read not only the student paper, but the assignment in Montesquieu as well. Any work that is submitted after the due date will suffer a penalty. No work will be accepted after the end of the semester. Final grades will be determined in the following manner: Class paper, seven to ten pages in length 20% Final paper, twenty pages in length 40% Reaction papers 20% Analysis of journal article, three pages in length 10% Participation 10% Again, as this is a seminar, class attendance and participation will be integral parts of the course. No one will pass the course if he or she misses three or more class meetings for any reason. Learning Objectives: This seminar serves as an intellectual capstone project for the major. Accordingly, it requires a substantial research paper (20 pages in length). In researching and writing this paper, students will learn how to conduct and present research in the subfield of political theory. The final paper must examine secondary material not assigned for the seminar meetings. The final paper will be evaluated on the following criteria: a clearly defined thesis that is argued throughout the paper; use of evidence to sustain this thesis; use of secondary sources; contribution to the scholarship; and the quality of writing. 3 DATE ASSIGNMENT________________________ Wednesday, January 14 Introduction to the course Wednesday, January 28 Persian Letters, Montesquieu’s Preface, letters 1-56 Wednesday, February 7 Persian Letters, letters 57-111 Wednesday, February 14 Persian Letters, letters 112-161 Wednesday, February 21 Spirit of the Laws, Author’s Foreword, Author’s Preface, Books 1-3 Wednesday, February 28 Spirit of the Laws, Books 4-5 Wednesday, March 4 Spirit of the Laws, Books 6-7 Wednesday, March 11 Spirit of the Laws, Books 8-10 Wednesday, March 25 Spirit of the Laws, Book 11 Wednesday, April 1 Spirit of the Laws, Books 12 and 14 Proposal for Final Paper Due Wednesday, April 8 Spirit of the Laws, Books 19, 20, and 21 (chapter 20 only) Wednesday, April 15 Spirit of the Laws, Books 24 and 25 Wednesday, April 22 Spirit of the Laws, Books 26 and 29 Analysis of Journal Article Due Monday, May 4 Final Papers due at noon in Department of Political Science 4 .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • One Hundred Years of Arrogance: Why 'Western' Liberalism Won't Save Latin America
    LSE Latin America and Caribbean Blog: One hundred years of arrogance: why ‘Western’ liberalism won’t save Latin America Page 1 of 4 One hundred years of arrogance: why ‘Western’ liberalism won’t save Latin America Liberalism is often seen as a Western gift to the world that became tragically warped on contact with less developed nations. But where once the region’s intellectuals themselves subscribed to this vision, more recent scholarship shows that Latin American countries charted their own courses towards “liberal” rights and constitutions. Despite even the recent ravages of neoliberalism, the key tenets and institutions of liberalism remain deeply popular, write Catherine Andrews (CIDE, Mexico) and Ariadna Acevedo Rodrigo (Cinvestav, Mexico). • Disponible también en español (versión extendida) In a recent article musing on the state of governance in Latin America, The Economist‘s columnist Bello asks himself whether “liberal ideas suffer in the region because they are imported”. He thinks so, but he nonetheless encourages Latin Americans to persist with them because they will bring “equality of opportunity” and “better public services at an affordable cost”. In a single stroke, Bello resolves all of liberalism’s contradictions and limitations by absolving it of blame for failing in Latin America. It is not liberalism – an “imported” idea – but rather its faulty application, which is in crisis. He conveniently forgets that the 2008 financial crisis left liberalism in crisis everywhere. He also overlooks at least two decades of research
    [Show full text]
  • H-France Review Volume 4 (2004) Page 397
    H-France Review Volume 4 (2004) Page 397 H-France Review Vol. 4 (November 2004), No. 113 Alan S. Kahan, Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Europe: The Political Culture of Limited Suffrage. Basingstoke, Hampshire, and New York, N.Y: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. vii + 239 pp. Notes, works cited, and index. $69.95 US (hb). ISBN 1-4039-1174-6. Review by Jean Elisabeth Pedersen, Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester. Alan Kahan’s new book on liberalism in nineteenth-century Europe represents a thoughtful attempt to define the core characteristics of that rich and complex intellectual tradition by focusing on liberals’ parliamentary debates over how to institute various forms of limited suffrage in England, France, and the German states before and after unification in the period from 1830 to 1885. Kahan’s earlier work has illuminated the intellectual biographies of Jacob Burckhardt, John Stuart Mill, and, especially, Alexis de Tocqueville; his new project now explores the political and intellectual history of the more general national movements in which these three figures played such important parts.[1] Kahan initially presents nineteenth-century liberals in familiar terms as “both the confident heirs of Voltaire and the frightened successors of Robespierre” (p. 1), or, in other words, as historical figures who hoped to sponsor progressive reform without provoking either radical revolution or conservative reaction. Unlike those historians, social theorists, and political activists who have defined liberals in economic terms by focusing on their commitment to the preservation of private property, however, Kahan seeks to define liberals in political terms by focusing instead on their commitment to what he calls “the discourse of capacity” (p.
    [Show full text]
  • In Praise of Liberalism: an Assessment of Liberal Political Thought from the 17Th Century to Today
    Review of Contemporary Philosophy Vol. 14, 2015, pp. 11–36, ISSN 1841-5261 IN PRAISE OF LIBERALISM: AN ASSESSMENT OF LIBERAL POLITICAL THOUGHT FROM THE 17TH CENTURY TO TODAY MICHAEL B. FRIEDMAN [email protected] School of Social Work, Columbia University ABSTRACT. The author of this essay maintains that liberalism has been the primary source of progressive change in the United States since its earliest history. To support his claim, he traces the philosophical and political history of liberalism in England and the United States. The specific forms of liberalism have varied in different periods of history; but, he maintains, there is an underlying spirit of liberalism that has persisted throughout the past 350 years and can be the source of dynamic progressive social change in the 21st century. Throughout history, he maintains, liberalism has been committed to social progress and has sought to improve the lives of populations that are economically and politically disadvantaged. This underlying spirit, the author argues, can be the source for an energized liberal agenda for the 21st century. Keywords: liberalism; political philosophy; political history 1. Introduction Conservative – and even centrist – opponents of liberalism reject it because they identify it with cumbersome government; reckless spending; high tax- ation; naiveté about economics, crime, and world power; and lack of moral values. What a mistake! In fact, liberalism has been the source of social and political progress in the Western world since the 17th century. The idea that rights set a limit on the legitimate power of government is a liberal idea. The idea that govern- ment must respect the liberty of individuals is a liberal idea.
    [Show full text]
  • Montesquieu on Commerce, Conquest, War, and Peace
    MONTESQUIEU ON COMMERCE, CONQUEST, WAR, AND PEACE Robert Howse* I. INTRODUCTION:COMMERCE AS THE AGENT OF PEACE:MONTESQUIEU AND THE IDEOLOGY OF LIBERALISM n the history of liberalism, Montesquieu, who died two hundred and Ififty years ago, is an iconic figure. Montesquieu is cited as the source of the idea of checks and balances, or separation of powers, and thus as an intellectual inspiration of the American founding.1 Among liberal internationalists, Montesquieu is known above all for the notion that international trade leads to peace among nation-states. When liberal international relations theorists such as Michael Doyle attribute this posi- tion to Montesquieu,2 they cite Book XX of the Spirit of the Laws,3 in which Montesquieu claims: “The natural effect of commerce is to bring peace. Two nations that negotiate between themselves become recipro- cally dependent, if one has an interest in buying and the other in selling. And all unions are based on mutual needs.”4 On its own, Montesquieu’s claim raises many issues. Montesquieu’s point is that trade based on mutual dependency discourages war. Here, Montesquieu abstracts entirely from the relative power of the states in question, a concern that is pervasive in his concrete analyses of relation- ships among political communities. For example, later on in the same section of the Spirit of the Laws he mentions that trade relations between Carthage and Marseille led to jealousy and a security conflict: There were, in the early times, great wars between Carthage and Mar- seille concerning the fishery. After the peace, they competed in eco- nomic commerce.
    [Show full text]
  • JS Mill's Political Thought
    P1: JZZ 0521860202pre CUFX079B/Urbinati 0 521 86020 2 cupusbw December 26, 2006 7:38 This page intentionally left blank ii P1: JZZ 0521860202pre CUFX079B/Urbinati 0 521 86020 2 cupusbw December 26, 2006 7:38 J. S. MILL’S POLITICAL THOUGHT The year 2006 marked the two hundredth anniversary of John Stuart Mill’s birth. Although his philosophical reputation has varied greatly in the interven- ing years, it is now clear that Mill ranks among the most influential modern political thinkers. Yet despite his enduring influence, and perhaps also because of it, the breadth and complexity of Mill’s political thought is often under- appreciated. Although his writings remain a touchstone for debates over liberty and liberalism, many other important dimensions of his political philosophy have until recently been mostly ignored or neglected. This volume aims, first, to correct such neglect by illustrating the breadth and depth of Mill’s political writings. It does so by drawing togetheracollection of essays whose authors explore underappreciated elements of Mill’s political philosophy, including his democratic theory, his writings on international relations and military inter- ventions, and his treatments of socialism and despotism. Second, the volume shows how Mill’s thinking remains pertinent to our own political life in three broad areas – democratic institutions and culture, liberalism, and international politics – and offers a critical reassessment of Mill’s political philosophy in light of recent political developments and transformations. Nadia Urbinati
    [Show full text]
  • John Locke and the Fable of Liberalism
    This is a repository copy of John Locke and the fable of liberalism. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/121796/ Version: Accepted Version Article: Stanton, Tim orcid.org/0000-0002-8282-9570 (2018) John Locke and the fable of liberalism. Historical Journal. pp. 597-622. ISSN 0018-246X https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X17000450 Reuse Items deposited in White Rose Research Online are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved unless indicated otherwise. They may be downloaded and/or printed for private study, or other acts as permitted by national copyright laws. The publisher or other rights holders may allow further reproduction and re-use of the full text version. This is indicated by the licence information on the White Rose Research Online record for the item. Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ The Historical Journal JOHN LOCKE AND THE FABLE OF LIBERALISM Journal: The Historical Journal Manuscript ID HJ-2017-062.R1 Manuscript Type: Article Perio : 1600-99, 1700-99, 1800-99, 1900-99, 2000- Intellectual, Historiographical, Religious, Political, A ministrative ( Legal, Thematic: Social Geographic: ,urope, Continental, .ritain, America, North Cambridge University Press Page 1 of 46 The Historical Journal Locke and the fable of liberalism JOHN LOCKE AND THE FABLE OF LIBERALISM TIMOTHY STANTON University of York ABSTRACT. This essay explores the ways in which John Locke was claimed by liberalism and refashioned in its image.
    [Show full text]
  • Rediscovering Conservatism: Burkean Political Theory and Constitutional Interpretation Ernest Young
    NORTH CAROLINA LAW REVIEW Volume 72 | Number 3 Article 4 3-1-1994 Rediscovering Conservatism: Burkean Political Theory and Constitutional Interpretation Ernest Young Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Ernest Young, Rediscovering Conservatism: Burkean Political Theory and Constitutional Interpretation, 72 N.C. L. Rev. 619 (1994). Available at: http://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr/vol72/iss3/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Carolina Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in North Carolina Law Review by an authorized administrator of Carolina Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. REDISCOVERING CONSERVATISM: BURKEAN POLITICAL THEORY AND CONSTITUTIONAL INTERPRETATION ERNEST YOUNG* Recent decisions of the Rehnquist Court-particularlythe Court's 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey-have caused many to question widely-held assumptions about the meaning of judicial conservatism. In this Article, Ernest Young argues that the views of modern judicial "conservatives" such as Judge Robert Bork and Justice Antonin Scalia are antitheticalto classicalconservative political theory, as exemplified by the writ- ings and speeches of the eighteenth-century British philosopher! politician Edmund Burke. In particular,Mr. Young argues that strict adherence to the originalunderstanding of the Constitution, judicial deference to democratic majorities, and formulation of legal directives as bright-line rules are all inconsistent with class- ical conservatism. Instead, Mr. Young advocates an approach to constitutional interpretationinspired by Burke's emphasis on tra- dition and evolutionary reform. Moreover, Mr. Young speculates that it is precisely this "common-law constitutionalism" that may be driving the emerging center of today's Supreme Court.
    [Show full text]
  • Toward a Democratic Critique of Neoliberalism
    From Histories of Liberalism to a History of the Demos: Toward a Democratic Critique of Neoliberalism Stephen W. Sawyer Abstract: This article contributes to a genealogy and democratic critique of neoliberal and liberal thought. It recognizes that democracy was at least partially enrolled in a neoliberal project through histories of liberalism in the last decades of the twentieth century that made the history of liberalism and the history of democracy indistin- guishable. The article suggests that a potent critique of neoliberalism thus requires us to craft a new history of democracy that is distinct from the history of liberalism. It therefore examines 1) three histories of liberalism by Pierre Rosanvallon, Michel Foucault and Friedrich Hayek in the 1960s-1970s; 2) the relationship between the- se histories of liberalism and democracy; 3) recent genealogical attempts by Wendy Brown to decouple neoliberalism, liberalism and democracy; and 4) a proposal for a history of democracy that would be distinct from the history of liberalism and civil society, grounded instead in a history of the demos. Keywords: History of Liberalism; History of Democracy; Democratic Theory; Ne- oliberalism; Pierre Rosanvallon; Friedrich Hayek; Michel Foucault; Wendy Brown. 1. While critiques of neoliberalism have increasingly signaled its at- tack on democracy1, historically speaking the democratic challenge to neoliberalism is relatively recent. During the period stretching from the post-war era to the beginning of the 1990s, the opposi- tion between neoliberalism
    [Show full text]
  • Sam Moyn, Human Rights and the Crisis of Liberalism
    To: Yale Private Law Workshop From: Samuel Moyn Daniel and Sadie asked us to consider human rights as part of the search for “dispute resolution” beyond established authority structures and more specifically to confront “how it happened (if it happened) that human rights have gained such authority and legitimacy that they can interfere with the sovereignty of states.” In response, I have attached a recent writing that is, predictably, historical in nature, though mostly directed by invitation at contemporary political scientists. (I have attempted to cut out all of the material specifically directed at contemporary political science, but some things may remain.) The theme of the paper is liberalism, which I take it is connected to some of the dispute resolution processes within established authority structures that you are considering in the rest of the seminar. But my basic argument is that liberals once were generally committed to extra-state politics in the form of political empire, and have lost powerful tools for internationalizing their values since that project went wrong. Global intervention is nothing new, it is just that spaces formerly ruled through default empire recently acquired postcolonial sovereignty. If so, interfering with the sovereignty of states presupposed the globalization of sovereignty not that long ago. See what you think. 1 Human Rights and the Crisis of Liberalism Samuel Moyn People often think of human rights as liberal. If they are correct, it must follow that criticisms of human rights have to be premised on a rejection of liberalism itself. Yet while human rights do incorporate historically liberal norms, they make up only one liberal project in history, indeed a latecome one.
    [Show full text]
  • Liberalism and Christianity
    Liberalism and Christianity Matthew Smith 1 ABSTRACT Liberalism and Christianity Matthew Smith Director: David D. Corey, Ph.D. What is the relationship between liberalism and Christianity? In this thesis, I analyze this question from both a historical and philosophical perspective. Historically, liberalism owes something to Christianity, as liberal ideas were encouraged by the Reformation. However, we have reached a point today in our liberal culture where it seems that Christianity and liberalism are at odds. Examining works from Guido de Ruggiero, John Locke, Ludwig von Mises, L.T. Hobhouse, Alan Wolfe, as well as Supreme Court jurisprudence on religious free exercise, I trace the relationship between liberalism and religion over time. Ultimately, I argue that liberalism has become increasingly intolerant toward Christianity as a result of the liberal temper. This temper places the pursuit of freedom over any specific belief practices. Today liberals may seem to expect religious believers to sacrifice their convictions for the sake of the novel freedoms. In the end, both liberals and religionists bear a responsibility to address this dilemma moving forward. APPROVED BY DIRECTOR OF HONORS THESIS: ______________________________________________________ Dr. David Corey, Department of Political Science APPROVED BY THE HONORS PROGRAM: _________________________________________________ Dr. Andrew Wisely, Director DATE: ___________________________ LIBERALISM AND CHRISTIANTY A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Baylor University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Honors Program By Matthew Smith Waco, Texas May 2015 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One: Introduction .................................................................................................. 1 Chapter Two: A History of Liberalism and Religious Liberty ........................................... 4 Chapter Three: Classical Liberalism and Religion ........................................................... 11 Chapter Four: The New Liberalism of L.T.
    [Show full text]
  • Tocqueville's Democracy in America
    POL 460H1S (L0101)/POL 2006H1S (L0101): Studies in Modern Political Theory: Tocqueville’s Democracy in America Professor: Ryan K. Balot Department of Political Science Sidney Smith Hall, Rm. 3064 [email protected] Office Hours: Wednesdays 3:00‐5:00pm Description Despite traditional aristocratic disdain for “the people,” democracy has by now become the only regime able to make any respectable claim to political or moral legitimacy. Democracy’s unchallenged pre‐eminence in this regard is based on a widely shared and even intransigent belief in equality – a belief that took hold in the “age of enlightenment” and received radical expression in the American and French Revolutions. In order to evaluate the prospects, ambiguities, and distinctive features of modern democracy, we focus this semester on what has often been called the American political “experiment.” This “experiment” consisted in the theoretical design and practical implementation of a novel and distinctively modern form of republicanism, which was held both to embody and to promote enlightened principles of rationality, science, universalism, and human choice. Roughly half a century after the American Revolution, Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America explored the ambiguous ramifications of political equality in light of the vanishing aristocratic alternative. While praising the American Founders, Tocqueville also challenged uncritical admirers of the American experiment to question the individualistic and materialistic “soulcraft” implicitly at work in the experience of democratic politics. Tocqueville’s work is a salutary and friendly critique that lays bare democracy’s chief tensions and dilemmas without proposing any radical political solutions of its own. Text Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, translated, edited, and with an introduction by Harvey C.
    [Show full text]
  • The Lost History of Liberalism
    © Copyright, Princeton University Press. No part of this book may be distributed, posted, or reproduced in any form by digital or mechanical means without prior written permission of the publisher. Introduction It is never a waste of time to study the history of a word. — Lucien Febvre, 1930 “LiberaLism” is a basic and ubiquitous word in our vo- cabulary.1 But liberalism is also a highly contentious concept, one that triggers heated debate. Some see it as Western civili- zation’s gift to mankind, others as the reason for its decline. A never-ending stream of books attacks or defends it, and hardly anyone can remain neutral. Critics accuse it of a long list of sins. They say that it destroys religion, the family, the commu- nity. It’s morally lax and hedonistic, if not racist, sexist, and imperialist. Defenders are just as emphatic. They say that lib- eralism is responsible for all that is best about us—our ideas of fairness, social justice, freedom, and equality. The truth is, however, that we are muddled about what we mean by liberalism. People use the term in all sorts of differ- ent ways, often unwittingly, sometimes intentionally. They talk past each other, precluding any possibility of reasonable de- bate. It would be good to know what we are speaking about when we speak about liberalism. [ 1 ] For general queries, contact [email protected] © Copyright, Princeton University Press. No part of this book may be distributed, posted, or reproduced in any form by digital or mechanical means without prior written permission of the publisher.
    [Show full text]