Liberalism

Liberalism Liberalism is a wide-ranging political movement that has its origin in the Enlightenment. Its central value is that individuals have fundamental right to personal freedom. However, Liberals accept that liberty entails responsibility. an individuals action should not harm other or curtail this kind of responsibility. The state must be voted by popularity and must be accountable to the people.

Liberals demonstrate strong attachments to equality of opportunity.

Doctrine is a strongly held single view or collection of connected views. For Liberals, the desire for freedom in its various forms is a doctrine.

The Enlightenment new philosophies challenged existing assumptions about the nature of humankind and society. The enlightenment made a movement possible that later followed with Liberalism.

Rationalism A new mode of thinking proposes that there are rational explanations for all phenomena like the nature of man, society and history • Each Person is a born free, rational individual.

• Each individual is the best judge of his or her own interest.

• An individual possesses free will and is not forced to follow the church or other Religions.

• Everyone is born fundamentally equal.

“Man is born free, but is everywhere in chains” 1762 The social contract (humankind was being unjustifiably controlled by social and political restraints) quote!

Natural rights all individuals are born with rights that are granted by God or nature.

The main natural rights specified are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Enlightenment opened peoples mind to new possibilities. it enabled individuals and movements to challenge the existing order including monarchy. it made individuals to into citizens with rights and enabled them to belief in whatever they want.

Liberalism and capitalism Capitalism is the name is the economic system that emerged during the 18th and 19th centuries.

It describes a system in which entrepreneurs take risks in organizing production and extract a profit in return for the risks they take and for their organizational efforts. liberals argue that Capitalism requires a high degree of economic freedom for workers, consumers financiers and entrepreneurs in order to operate effectively.

Laissez-faire A term referring to a form of governing that interferes to a minimum extent in economic and social life.

The development of the concept of liberty Freedom of the individual was a concept that was developed throughout the nineteenth century. It was the product of a new philosophy, often described as classical liberalism.

Liberty became a necessary companion to the growth of free. market capitalism.

The idea of freedom of the individual was pre-eminent in liberalism for a very short time the risks of excessive amounts of liberty were recognized.

Liberals accepted that freedom should not be exercised to the detriment (the state of being harmed or damaged) of others in society and therefore the concept had to be combined with a sense of social responsibility. This can be described as a kind of social freedom, whereby individual liberty is exercised only in a socially responsible way.

Liberals accept that there are two kinds of freedom Negative liberty: refers to the freedom of the individual from external restraints.

Positive liberty: refers to maximizing the individual’s choices and opportunities.

From that point on liberals tried to find a balance between the right of individuals in society freedom should be exercised with a sense of social responsibility and governments needed to promote both negative and positive liberty.

Liberty/Freedom in this context the terms liberty and freedom have essentially the same meaning.

We can divide the examination of liberty into three parts.

1. Political or revolutionary liberty This kind of freedom is known as self-determination. Throughout the 19th century, many movements cried for independence in Germany, Italy and the Ottoman Empire.

This particular meaning of freedom is no longer central to liberal thought, however one of the core meanings of liberals philosophy is that people should be independent, master of their own national destiny and have the right to chose their own form of government.

2. Individual liberty The main enemies in the view of a liberals were over-powerful governments. 2 charges where laid against them.

1. Governments were to paternalistic, they claimed to understand what was in peoples best interest even better then people themselves.

2. Controlling peoples actions, even those actions which did not affect others or threaten society.

1 designed to be useful or practical rather than attractive.

2 Philosophy of, relating to, or adhering to the doctrine of utilitarianism: a utilitarian theorist.

This divides the idea of individual liberty into two categories.

1. Each individual is the best judge of his or her own interest. Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) a celebrated English utilitarian argued that as individual we are motivated to pursue pleasure and to avoid pain. In other words people know what they wish to pursue and to avoid. For Bentham, being allowed to make those decisions ourselves and to act on them was the essence of freedom.

Bentham argued that the government shouldn't make those decisions for us nor should they prevent us from following our self-interest, unless of course we harm other or prevent them from pursuing there始s. the enlightened pursuit of self-interest became a central liberal idea which coexisted well with freemarket capitalism.

2. a follower of Bentham John Stuart Mill (1806-73) developed a view of true freedom based on the absence of constraint (limitation, restriction).

Mill divided our actions into two

1. self-regarding actions. i.e. those that do not affect other people like drug use, smoking, drinking alcohol (YEAH RIGHT!).

2. other-regarding actions that do affect others such as theft, assault, negligent behavior, cruelty and discrimination. (Check quote on page 7 if more info needed).

1. Negative and positive liberty The modern philosopher Isaiah Berlin coined the terms.

The tern negative liberty refers to a person being “unfree” because another person prevented him from doing what he otherwise could do. Negative liberty in this sense is the area in which a person can act unobstructed by others.

Positive liberty means the wish to be his own master. “I wish my life and decisions to depend on myself”, that means that no external forces of whatever kind can obstruct the person. The “positive” gives the person the right to be his on master to be a subject not an object.