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The Foundation and Nature of Contemporary Liberalism Mats The Foundation and Nature of Contemporary Liberalism Mats Volberg PhD thesis University of York Philosophy March 2015 ABSTRACT This thesis aims to define the foundation and nature of contemporary liberalism. Chapter 1 will provide an overview of different interpretations of what liberalism is, followed by a general definition of liberalism as a political doctrine with four distinct features: importance of liberty, centrality of persons, commitment to ethical pluralism, and suspicious attitude towards state power. Chapter 2 will propose that the foundation of liberalism thus conceived is an understanding of persons as free and equal. Persons being free means that there is no normative authority over persons in politics except the one which is properly justified; this is the justification thesis. Persons being equal means that there is no normative authority over persons in ethics. This implies a committed openness to pluralism, since there is no normative position from which to adjudicate. Chapters 3 and 4 will establish that we have good reasons to believe persons are free and equal – or at least that we have reason to treat them as such. In Chapter 5 I present the idea of perfectionism and distinguish perfectionist liberalisms from political liberalisms, as well as considering some ways in which one might make the case for perfectionist liberalism. Finally in Chapter 6 I bring the discussion to a close, first by looking at some objections to perfectionism found in the literature, and then demonstrating that if we take the idea of persons as free and equal as a foundation of liberalism, then we cannot be perfectionist, since these two notions are in conflict with one another. More specifically a perfectionist approach to liberalism cannot meet the justification thesis and cannot be open to ethical pluralism. The thesis provides a comprehensive view of liberalism and its foundation and thus helps to settle an important debate within contemporary liberalism between perfectionism and anti- perfectionism. 2 CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................... 5 AUTHOR’S DECLARATION ............................................................................... 6 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 7 1. WHAT IS LIBERALISM? ............................................................................. 10 1.1 Setting the Scene ................................................................................ 10 1.2 What is Liberalism? ............................................................................. 14 1.2.1 Michael Freeden’s Interpretation of Liberalism................................... 15 1.2.2 Judith Shklar’s Interpretation of Liberalism ....................................... 21 1.2.3 Raymond Geuss’s Interpretation of Liberalism ................................... 23 1.3 A Generalized Definition of Liberalism .................................................... 28 1.4 The “Libertarianism Question”............................................................... 30 2. LIBERALISM IS PERSONS BEING FREE AND EQUAL ...................................... 34 2.1 What is the Foundation of Liberalism? .................................................... 34 2.2 What It Means for a Person to Be Free and Equal .................................... 37 2.2.1 Persons Being Free ........................................................................ 37 2.2.2 Persons Being Equal ...................................................................... 45 2.2.3 A Few Notes on “Suitable Justification” ............................................. 56 2.3 Tying It All Together ............................................................................ 60 2.3.1 Connecting the Foundation to the Generalized Definition .................... 60 2.3.2 The Place of “Persons as Free and Equal” in Contemporary Literature .. 64 3. ARE PERSONS FREE AND EQUAL? .............................................................. 70 3.1 Some Preliminary Issues ...................................................................... 70 3.2 Analytic Aspects of Persons Being Free and Equal .................................... 75 3.3 The Metaphysical Property Approach ..................................................... 80 3.4 The Empirical Property Approach ........................................................... 81 3.5 The Agreement Approach ..................................................................... 87 3.6 Summary ........................................................................................... 89 4. YES, PERSONS ARE FREE AND EQUAL ........................................................ 91 4.1 The Empirical Property Arguments......................................................... 92 4.1.1 John Rawls on Persons as Free and Equal ......................................... 92 4.1.2 Charles Larmore on Persons as Free and Equal ................................. 97 4.1.3 Summary of Empirical Property Arguments ...................................... 101 4.2 Ronald Dworkin in the Middle............................................................... 102 4.3 The Agreement Based Arguments ........................................................ 106 4.3.1 Gerald Gaus on Persons as Free and Equal ...................................... 107 3 4.3.2 Stanley Benn on Persons as Free and Equal ..................................... 111 4.3.3 Summary of the Agreement Based Arguments ................................. 116 4.4 Pragmatic Considerations .................................................................... 117 4.5 Going Forward ................................................................................... 120 5. POLITICAL AND PERFECTIONIST LIBERALISMS ........................................... 123 5.1 Perfectionism in Political Philosophy ...................................................... 123 5.2 The Distinction between Perfectionist and Political Liberalisms ................. 128 5.3 The Problems with the ‘Political’ ........................................................... 131 5.4 The Four-Fold Division from Jonathan Quong ......................................... 135 5.5 The Diversity of Liberalisms ................................................................. 139 5.6 A Case for Perfectionist Liberalism ........................................................ 140 6. WHY PREFER POLITICAL LIBERALISM? ....................................................... 145 6.1 The Argument So Far .......................................................................... 145 6.2 Some Common Worries with Perfectionist Liberalism .............................. 147 6.3 The Revised Case for Perfectionist Liberalism ......................................... 152 6.4 Perfectionism and Persons Being Free ................................................... 154 6.4.1 “Limited Scope of Justification Thesis” Objection .............................. 155 6.4.2 “Not All Reasons Are from Objective Good” Objection ....................... 157 6.4.3 “Pluralism Can Help” Objection....................................................... 158 6.5 Perfectionism and Persons Being Equal ................................................. 162 6.6 Relevant Background Issues ................................................................ 167 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................. 170 REFERENCES .............................................................................................. 172 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis was completed by the continued support and help of many people, and I would like to thank all of them. First and foremost my supervisors Thomas Baldwin and Mónica Brito-Vieira who provided me with excellent guidance and feedback thus shaping the thesis into what it is. Both of my examiners, Fabienne Peter and James Clarke, must also be credited for helping me achieve greater clarity in my argument throughout the thesis. Similar gratitude goes to members of my Thesis Advisory Panel: Matt Matravers, Debbie Roberts, and Christian Piller. Although our contact was much less frequent their help was not at all less valuable. Also I would like to thank other faculty members from Department of Philosophy and Department of Politics in University of York and Department of Philosophy in University of Tartu: Tom Stoneham, Martin O’Neill, Susan Mendus, and Paul McLaughlin who either pointed me in the right direction or raised interesting questions concerning my research. Over the course of my studies I presented my work on various occasions in the Work in Progress meetings for Philosophy PhD students and also in the Work in Progress meetings for the PEP PhD students. The questions and comments I received from my fellow PhD students are much appreciated. Portions of my work were also presented at multiple conferences, summer schools and other academic gatherings: The Warwick Graduate Conference in Political and Legal Theory at University of Warwick in 2012, 2013 and 2014; summer school Liberalism, Libertarianism, and Democracy: Theory and Practice at Bogaziçi University in 2012; Departmental Colloquium of Department of Philosophy at University of Tartu in 2012 and 2013; The IV Meetings on Ethics and Political Philosophy at University of Minho in 2013; The 5th European Consortium
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